Intentional Time, Attention, Effort (and Some Help) Creates Change

Oleg the fashion coach
Oleg the fashion coach, although optimistic, has his work cut out for him.

File this under “thoughts on the way to the train” and pay attention, I think I might just be onto something here. This morning at Starbucks when me and my friend-turned-fashion-coach Oleg (I think I have a few now thanks to this post last week) were going through how we’re going to give my wardrobe an upgrade I felt something. I felt what it’s like to not only recognize something I care about and need to work on but also the feeling of doing something about it. I recognized a need, thought about it, expressed it and now I’ve brought in some people who are willing to help me out. It’s a great feeling and one that doesn’t just happen naturally. It’s planned, it’s intentional and it’s incredibly powerful.

One thing I’ve realized about myself is that most of the time I know what I need to do to make certain situations better but for some reason I just don’t do it. Take this fashion thing for example. All I needed was to get my thoughts together about what I wanted, communicate them in the right way and then ask for help. It’s not that I don’t have the ability to go buy clothes for myself. It’s more about feeling overwhelmed by the process and getting stuck and not making any forward progress.

Another important thing I’ve recognized is now that I’ve got the process started there are people who are holding me accountable and who I don’t want to let down. For me this is strong motivation for keeping up with what’s being asked of me. It’s a powerful way to get something done and just how I’m using it to give my fashion a facelift it can also be used to make any other type of change in my life.

How strong was the motivation for me this morning? Usually I’m struggling to make it to me and Oleg’s weekly meeting on time at 7:30am. This morning, knowing that I still had some fashion homework to do I showed up just before 6:30am. Now that’s creating some change. I’ll be sure to continue to write about the process and I’m excited to see how this all ends up. There’s no stopping me now.

 

Sending Out A Fashion S.O.S.

Brown Pants, Startup T-shirt
Me, my brown pants and a startup t-shirt. Ryan Hupfer fashion at it’s best (worst). 

I have a problem with fashion. First of all, I don’t put enough emphasis on the way I look most of the time. It’s just something that has never been a priority for me so I don’t put a whole lot of time or effort into it. Some people tell me this is a good thing because I spend less money on stuff I don’t need and I don’t eat up my time with shopping for the next must-have addition to my wardrobe. The problem is that deep down I know the value in presenting myself well and as long as I don’t go overboard adding some much-needed options to my clothing repertoire I think it’s something I need to put some time into.

Currently my style is pretty simple. I wear the same pair of brown jeans about 75% of the time due to the fact that they actually fit me well (buying jeans when you’re 6’7″ isn’t easy). I usually top of my outfit with a t-shirt that I’ve most likely gotten for free from some tech startup in the area. I have about ten solid startup shirts and not only were they free but they’re comfy and designed well.

For my shoes I’m rocking some bright green and yellow Pumas which I didn’t even buy myself. I was in Las Vegas with my parents and the shoes I was wearing at the time looked so ragged my mom made me to go a shoe store to buy something new. If it wasn’t for her dragging me into the Puma store who knows what my shoes would look like right now.

In San Francisco it’s always nice during the day but once the sun starts going down you don’t dare go anywhere without a couple of layers. When I need to break out the layers I have one fairly stylish jacket I bought about a year ago at TJ Maxx. I like it because it’s not too big and it’s just warm enough to wear around the city most of the time. If it gets a little colder I have a hoodie that’s a little too big for me, but super comfortable that I’ll throw under it for good measure. When paired together they look pretty good on me but I hate it when the sleeves of the hoodie stick out farther than the sleeves of my jacket. That just looks dumb.

Really the only other noticeable things I rock on the runway of life are funky socks. I’ve grown to like wearing colorful and weird socks that don’t usually match most of the time. It’s a fun and subtle way to say “Hey, I’m not normal.” without having to invest in some tattoos or expensive/painful accessories. I have argyle socks, socks with robots on them and even some bright pinks socks that I found in the women’s section of Target. I wear them as much as I can and it’s amazing how many people actually notice them.

So all of that to say that I need some help in the fashion department and I’m not sure where to start. I’m not one to just go out and shop for this thing or that and to be honest it’s not real easy to shop for my body type. I’m 6’7″ with an athletic build (small waist and broader shoulders/chest) and there’s not a whole lot of places that carry clothes that fit me the way I like them to. For example, I wear a 34/36 pant and that’s a pretty rare find.

I feel like I just need to shop for some stuff online and get used to trying them on at home and shipping back what I don’t like. I think that would be a good place to start, although I’m not sure where I would start buying from. I’m just clueless when it comes to where to shop. How pathetic.

Anyway, I guess this is my fashion SOS for any of you men or women out there who would happen to have any advice for how I can start doing something about the sad, sad state of affairs that just happens to be my closet. If you have any thoughts or ideas on where I should start, I would really appreciate them. In the meantime, if you need me I’ll be the guy in the brown pants.