All one has to do is walk down any street, anywhere, at any time, and you quickly realize that we do not live in the age of elegance. That is for sure. Now if you think back to Edith Wharton’s novel, The Age of Innocence, published, I think, in 1920. It dealt with the time in New York City wherein high society was greatly concerned about the way they looked, the way they acted, etcetera. Shallow for sure, but it was important.
And I think Wharton points out that if you follow a trend in that way, you probably will end up to be unhappy, especially if you are dishonest with yourself. That said, now we’re coming to an interesting time, aren’t we? Because the average person, I would think, in the modern era is pretty poorly dressed. All you have to do is to walk down a street and look at the torn jeans and the tattoos and the colors of hair, disheveled looks, etcetera. Now I know I sound perhaps old fashioned, but I think times are a changing.
Recently, I’ve been noticed that there are a lot of people that are on YouTube, for example, who are promoting how to dress. They’re essentially selling style and clothing. But why? Because we don’t live in this age. So why are they doing this?
I suspect it is because we’ve ended up in a time that everyone is a %. Everyone has their teeth, good looking, because we’re young. The post millennials are young, of course. We’re young. We have taught bodies.
It just goes on. Bit of money in the family, etcetera. So what makes me 100% plus? It certainly can’t be my education because everyone has one. It certainly can’t be my torn jeans because it’s just overly trendy.
Can’t be my social media presence. Nope. We live in an age of comparison. So what makes me 100% plus? It can only be my elegance.
Only my elegance, my style, my personal brand. So if that’s true, what am I to do to enhance this brand so I become more competitive, more attractive in the capitalistic society, in the job market, if you will, after my education. Because I want to achieve something with my life, don’t I? I mean, this is the task, I think, of most people to achieve some modicum of success. So what am I to do?
Well, I think the very first thing, the very first thing a person is going to have to do for sure is to remind yourself that you must cultivate poise in all situations. I stress this, all situations. Be it may if you go to a gym, you go for a walk, you go and meet friends, even if you’re at home, perhaps, you should always think to yourself, I am an elegant person. And, of course, your language then becomes extremely important. Remove the vulgarities from your language.
Try to enhance some positive expressions. Be a positive person. For example, have gratitude for the fact that you are alive. Someone special with a mission to do. Dress with some intention.
Develop your own style. There is a belief that all of us are a different season. A spring, a summer, a fall, or a winter. And those colors are those seasons rather are associated with some colors and some color patterns. It behooves you to go out and actually have a look and see if this is true, then elevate your manners.
If you don’t know how to eat properly, use a knife and fork properly, learn. It’s easy. Everything for sure is on the Internet. And some people say we should have a signature scent. We should smell in a certain way.
That’s also very, very desirable. And I guess the end of it all is that we must have a bit of kindness Because, gosh, there is no purpose in me achieving all of these things if I can’t share kindness with my fellow human being. I watched a man begging the other day, and people were really disrespectful to him. It was a man begging coming up to the car and all that. And I thought to myself, this is so unnecessary because our elegance should suggest that everyone is equal to a certain extent.
And I am so lucky, just so lucky to be me. Now why should we be concerned about this phenomenon called elegance? Very quickly, I related this story before. I taught at a company that quite large, and they advertised for two salesmen. Very good company, good money, chance to travel the world, etcetera.
And they found two young people, both MBAs, highly educated, and they arrived. Firstly, there was a girl, and she chewed gum the whole time in the interview. Gum. She chewed gum, if you could believe this. The young man, when the president entered to interview him, didn’t stand up, didn’t pro offer his hand and give a fairly firm handshake.
And then the capper was poorly dressed. The company is obviously looking for people who can represent them well. So neither of these two young people got the job. Tragic. Because it was a good job, good company.
And so their elegance mitigated, reduced everything. And who were they? Nobody knows because they were never afforded an opportunity to present who they really were. So we have an idiom in English, you can always take a tie off. It means, if you go into any situation, interview, let’s say, for instance, go in well dressed.
Well dressed because let’s say the company is profoundly informal, and you realize this when you arrive. If you’re a young man, you can always take your tie off, take your cufflinks off, take your jacket off. You can dress down. If you’re a young woman, you can take your earrings off, wipe your rouge down, dress down. But you can never dress up as these two young people have shown us in my example.
So think to yourself. Why am I here? What’s my mission in life? What happens when I leave here? Why not do it with a little bit of land, a little bit of style?
Because that’s who we’re supposed to be. There’s no one like me, never has been, never will be. Well, then do it. Dress it up. Care for yourself.
Why not? Show some elegance. And you know what they say. You know what they say. Critical thinking is everything, especially if you’re going to lead an elegant life, and critical thinking is great.
Truly great. You think of the age of innocence, an interesting novel. You take care. God bless. Bye bye.