5 Limiting Beliefs Killing Your 2015 Resolutions

2015 is officially underway.

I’ll bet you’re excited to get started making those New Year’s resolutions come true.

Perhaps this year you’ll start a business and make more money.

Or maybe you decided enough is enough and  finally make the commitment to get yourself in shape.

Or, if you’re like a lot men reading this site, maybe your goal this year is to improve your style and create a new personal brand. Creating a new style is something you’ve thought about before, but never really took any action on.

And so you’re here, looking for answers. Seeking advice from men who seem to have this whole style thing figured out.

But let me stop you.

Before you jump head-first into overhauling your style, I want you to take a moment and go deep inside for a minute.

Don’t worry I’m not going off the deep end.

I’m speaking from personal experience, when I say you’ve probably got a few negative beliefs swimming around in your head when it comes to your personal style.

Beliefs which can prevent you from taking the right steps to improve the way you look.

That’s why I want to go over 5 limiting beliefs you need to confront in order to make 2015 a leap forward in style.

Let’s begin.

Limiting Belief #1: Worrying About What Your Friends Think Of You

One of the biggest challenges you will face when trying to improve your style is the criticism and negativity of your closest friends and colleagues.

They will often make little comments teasing you about your new wardrobe and ask you why you’re “dressed up” all of the time.

As innocent as some of these remarks may sound, they’re actually laced with insecurity and negativity. Beware.

Believe it or not, most of your friends and colleagues would rather not see you improve your life. As it would reflect poorly on them, resulting in a significant blow to THEIR self esteem.

Which is why, much like crabs in a bucket, they will do their best to pull you back down.

My advice?

Ignore them.

While I don’t think you need to actively cut people out of your life in order to improve your style, you do need to stop caring what others think of you.

Besides, sooner or later you’ll discover these people will either come around or stop commenting – either way, you win.

Limiting Belief #2. Dressing Well is Expensive

A big misconception about dressing well is, you need to spend a lot of money.

This couldn’t be further from the truth.

What a lot of guys fail to understand, it’s not necessarily about what you wear (i.e. brand names) but how you wear it. Budget pieces can often look just as good (if not better) than their luxury counterparts.

Furthermore, as a man you simply don’t need to have a lot of clothes in order to dress well. In fact, if you focus on buying interchangeable pieces then you can get away with as few as 20 pieces of clothing and still have a fantastic wardrobe.

It’s all about buying quality over quantity.

But if you’re still having doubts about the value of improving your style, then you need to re-frame your thinking. Instead of viewing clothes as just another expense, you need to see them as an investment in yourself. After all, there’s no doubt having a sense of style improves your confidence, which in turn can improve both your financial status and romantic life.

Isn’t that worth the modest expense required to improve your style?

Limiting Belief #3. Dressing Up Means Dressing Well

Another belief holding you back from improving your style is the notion that you need to always be dressing up in order to look good.

What you have to realize is, putting on a suit does NOT mean dressing well (look at the sheer number of men walking around in ill-fitting suits). A man can be just as well dressed and stylish wearing a v-neck t-shirt and a pair of jeans as he is wearing a three-piece suit.

It’s all about finding the right fit and dressing for the occasion.

You want a wardrobe to express your personality. After all, the reality is, not all of us need (or want) to wear a suit every day.

And that’s okay.

There is no rule book stating that you must wear a particular clothing item in order to be deemed stylish. It doesn’t work that way. So get it out of your head, you need to always be “dressed up” in order to look stylish. It’s not doing you any favors.

Limiting Belief #4. A Sense of Style is Not Important

Appearances matter a LOT more than most people would like to believe.

Science has repeatedly shown, people who are considered attractive, make more money in their lifetimes and are perceived more intelligent and competent.

Fortunately, you don’t have to be naturally good looking in order to cash in on the benefits.

You can actually enhance your attractiveness by simply improving your style and grooming habits.

Research has shown the most attractive features of an individual fall into the category of “self care” (i.e. personal hygiene, style, posture, weight management etc.) – in other words, things we can actually control and change.

But here’s the kicker: when you improve your style, not only do you enhance your attractiveness, but you also improve your confidence at the same time.

Nice combination, huh?

And as men, we all know that confidence is king.

So the belief … “style isn’t important” is not only wrong, but it’s actively damaging. As it encourages you to adopt a fixed mindset. Which is neither helpful nor conducive for changing or improving your lifestyle.

That’s why you need to abandon this belief immediately if you are serious about improving your style.

Limiting Belief #5. Dressing Well Requires a Lot of Time and Effort

A lot of guys have it in their heads … dressing well requires a huge amount of effort, plus keeping a pulse on the latest trends in the menswear industry.

Wrong!

While improving your style certainly takes an initial investment of your time, most guys over estimate.

Fortunately, there are plenty of great websites and products out there to help you tackle this goal in short order.

And once you understand the basic principles of good style and build yourself a great wardrobe, it’s easy to dress well for any occasion.

It’s all about the power of habit.

And developing a good sense of style is like establishing any other habit – it takes a bit of energy to set the wheels in motion but once you do, it becomes automatic. You’ll dress sharp without thinking much about it.

But in order to get to that level, you’ll need to eradicate the beliefs … it’s “too hard” or you “don’t have enough time.”

It’s the only way.

Final Word

If you’re to improve your style this year, then I urge you to take the advice of late motivational guru Zig Ziglar.

Give yourself a “check up from the neck up” to make sure you’re not suffering from  “stinkin’ thinking” like I’ve described above.

Because once you’ve established a healthy mindset the rest of the process towards developing personal style becomes easier and more enjoyable.

The way it should be.

Here’s to looking sharp in 2015!

About Today’s Guest Author

Manny De La Cruz is a lifelong fitness enthusiast turned style aficionado. He is the co-founder of Well Built Style, a website dedicated to helping men around the world overhaul their look through style and fitness.