Why you don't like what you buy

​If you are not sure who you are and what you like, you will buy clothes based on external influences. And in reality you are excited about the act of shopping, not the piece you are taking home. 

I am sure that you know this - you go shopping on a casual Tuesday afternoon. Just for fun. You find something you like, you get excited about buying it and you take it to the counter. But the moment the credit card beeps to confirm the payment, your excitement starts declining. At first it might be so subtle that you don't even realize it. But within a few days you don't even remember the glimpse of joy you felt when you purchased it. 

And it gets worse. Because at home you might realize that you don't actually like it that much. You are not even sure if you would wear it. It is even possible that you have nothing to wear with it so it sits in the closest and takes up space. And it demands your attention. You need to fold it, put it in its place. Then fold it again when you pull out a piece that was under it in the pile. To sum it up: you paid your money for something that is creating a mess and clusters your environment. You bought something that does not serve you. 

Even if you spent just a few bucks, I call these "expensive mistakes". Not only for our finances, but also for the environment. With today's production of fashion there is a lot of transport, chemicals and textile waste involved and I know you don't want to take part in this. 

It is not your fault. We have all been brainwashed for decades that shopping is the answer for all our problems and life situations, but it does not serve us the way it is today. Who wants to have a full closet and nothing to wear on a dying planet? 

The answer is in your mindset. And one of the steps toward a meaningful wardrobe is defining your style. 

Most of us never slowed down to define our style. We succumb to external influences. We dress according to what others expect from us based on our social class, job, marital status. You might not be even aware of it, but your fashion choices might still be influenced by "what would your mother think" or "what would my man think" or "what would people say". A wardrobe based on external influences can never fully satisfy us. Because our satisfaction is an internal feeling, it cannot be obtained from the outside. 

When you define your style based on who you are, you will jump off the trends treadmill. You will ALWAYS look stylish. You will wear clothes of much better QUALITY, because you will happily invest in great pieces. You will keep them for longer, never getting bored of them, because you won't be obedient to the dictates of the fashion world, you will be faithful to who you are. You will not change clothes with new trends, you will change them when you self-actualize.