Use your favorites as a guide
Your favorites are important guideposts
A while back I ended up in an internet rabbit hole about why making friends is simpler when you’re a kid then when you’re an adult and two themes came to light:
1. Kids are trapped with each other for hours a day in school for weeks and months at a time. Friendships are formed as a kind of survival mechanism. But then, those same friendships are fostered through connecting outside of the school day.
2. Kids haven’t been trained out of being overtly rude yet. If some people are friends then other people are by definition not friends. Friendship shows a kind of favoritism.
I was thinking about this favoritism aspect again because another stylist I know asked for input on a SubStack article about why we don’t wear the clothes we don’t wear.
In answering her questions I realized I play heavy favorites in my closet and sometimes clothes fall out of favor. It doesn’t mean they’re bad clothes, they just aren’t favorites of the moment.
The thing about favoritism is, when you think about it as data it highlights your strongest preferences. It’s why I ask clients about their favorites in their closets. I’m learning more about what they love so we can add more love to their closets.
In business…
Obviously you can’t use favoritism in business the same way you can in your closet. People are not objects and shouldn’t be used as such.
But your favorites still hold valuable information. Your favorite clients to work with, your favorite products to sell, your favorite services to deliver – all of these hold clues about where you should be directing your future.
You can and arguably should craft your business in the direction of your business’s North Star. This is true even (and especially) if your business is “just you” or “just your freelancing” or “just a couple of gigs.”
This applies outside of style and business too…
Knit more of what you enjoy knitting. Cook more of what you enjoy sewing. Grow more of what you enjoy growing. Sew more of what you enjoy sewing. Read more books you enjoy reading. Spend more time with your favorite people.
Lean into what you love. Important clues live there.
As always, if you’d like to work together on your business, your style, or your creative life, schedule a call and we’ll get the process started.
This post was originally emailed as part of August’s newsletter. Sign up to receive next month’s email.
