Posts Tagged ‘attractiveness’
John T. Molloy, author of Dress for Success, conducted an interesting experiment while writing his book. He panhandled money at New York City’s Port Authority Bus Terminal and Grand Central Station. During rush hour, he stopped people and said he was embarrassed but had lost his wallet and needed 75 cents to get home. He did this for two hours. During the first hour, he wore a suit but no tie. During the second hour, he wore a tie as well. In the first hour, he made $7.23, and, during the second hour, his net was $26 dollars — nearly five times more. Molloy’s conclusion? The public perceives the tie as a symbol of respectability and responsibility. People trust and respect someone who is well-groomed and cared for. Why wouldn’t you want this for yourself and your child? Obviously, I’m not saying you must wear a suit every day, but putting your best foot forward can only improve your life.
A study done in part by New York University sociologist, Dalton Conley, found an increase in a woman’s body mass directly correlated to a decrease in her family income and job prestige. Men, however, experienced no similar negative effect. The study, sponsored by the National Bureau on Economic Research, found a one percent increase in body mass as measured by using BMI results in a 0.6 percent decrease in family income. This isn’t right, but it’s reality, and is something that should be taken into consideration for yourself and your children.
I’ve known many mothers who are persistent, committed, self-sacrificing, attentive, driven, methodical, motivated, creative, competent, bright, self-critical and perfectionistic. These adjectives make them wonderful mothers, wives, employees, and so on, but also tend to make them very poor in the self-care department. Too much stress, including the stress of being a day-to-day caretaker, jeopardizes health, happiness, productivity, goals, and relationships. Working with little variation or a high demand for productivity and recurring pressured deadlines over an extended period of time will create a lot of stress. It’s time to start taking care of you regardless of deadlines, soccer games, and everything else you have going on at any given moment. This may sound like blasphemy to the typical mom, but attempting to perform all these daily tasks while feeling overburdened and unwell simply makes you ineffectual. It’s time to start living and enjoying life, cultivating a fulfilling life that involves what you want and caring for your own needs, as well as those of your family. Self-care is a well-understood and universally-affirmed concept, with a history of poor implementation. Like most everything else, life is a game of balance. Finding that balance is key to taking care of yourself while, at the same time, taking care of those who depend on you.
