[ARTICLE BY TARIQ JONES]

I’m here to confess to a growing crime. The insidious attitude we hold towards adorning ourselves in respectable clothes has no parallel. I’ll admit it though, there are mornings that I rise and it seems as if everything between heaven and earth has conspired to make me feel like animal dung. So in common manner I rise lazily, I shower lazily, and lastly I dress as if the kings of style were turning over in their graves. Unfortunately, we all do it. We all let the day dictate whether we slither through 24hrs or stride as a young colt would towards glory. That morning fog coupled with a stolen extra 15 minutes of sleep leaves us with little creative time to select our best.

Health proponents argue with intensity “A cold glass of water in the morning will give you the jolt you need.” NEWSFLASH: though ladies and gentleman, about the time when that water makes its way down your esophagus, which takes about 3 minutes, you’ll be back to feeling abundantly miserable! I understand the water viewpoint, but we almost never discuss the profound effect that getting dressed has on whether we are feeling like Channing Tatum or the lauded “Mclovin”. So why on earth does it pay to dress well 365 days a year and more particularly when you are feeling like a tuna melt on a rainy Sunday?

A Fashion statement is always accompanied by a mental aura that provides the wearer a sense of self worth unmatched. When locating self-worth in the dictionary, we are re-directed to “Self-Esteem” and Merriam Webster defines it as “confidence and satisfaction in one’s self.” Voila! There you have it right under your mustache, a revelation of insurmountable truth. Every Morning, or afternoon for the late risers, you decide on how much you will be worth that day. Now I am not saying that a well-dressed person can cover up being a drudging sloth. However, clothing yourself stylishly does not indicate you’re a raging narcissist either. Plus we all have those pristine items dangling in our closets like orphans in window shop mirrors that turn us into the CEO’s, Nobel Laureates, and Athletes we want to be all the time.

Your outfit of supreme confidence is waiting for you, more loyal than a Labrador.  Be sure to understand that your body, mind, and spirit will never complain about pizazz. Ladies and gentleman, there is a climactic period we enter 5 minutes after we have showered  and dressed that determines so much about us. I believe we are daily gifts to the world. Every night we take off our old ragged packaging beat up by the disco dance of our busy lives. But the next day we wrap ourselves up the best way we know how and mush on. Wouldn’t it seem a little confusing if we got that new MacBook for a gift and it came in newspaper as opposed to metallic silver packaging you can almost see the future in?! In closing you are a present for the masses everyday, do your mind, body, and soul a favor and dress like the true gift you are!

Aspire to make a difference.

Tariq J.