luck of the irish

I've never been one to believe in luck- I think life is more about the choices you make and that everything happens for a reason. Maybe because it is hard for me to accept that one person should deserve more good fortune than another. Anyway, with Saint Patrick's Day just around the corner I am seeing green, shamrocks, and dark stout everywhere. I can't help but think about luck and the "luck of the Irish"- which coincidentally, means to have bad luck as the tale goes that Irish folk have unfortunate luck.
Create your own good fortune! Take action in your life. But wear green and drink a Guinness anyway, and celebrate your heritage, or the heritage of your peers.

Success, love and other drugs.

Success.

How do you measure success? Be it in others or yourself, what are the qualifications to be deemed a success?
Just for fun, google "success". Below are my findings..

suc·cess

1. favorable or prosperous termination of attempts or endeavors.

2. the attainment of wealth, position, honors, or the like.

3. obsolete.

Number One. By far the closest definition to my personal thought on success. Attempt and endeavor what you dream of. Take your goals (if you don't have any then first establish some) and focus them. Focus on attaining those goals and reaching them. What is most important in your life? Often times we evaluate our life choices and goals in time of desperation and difficulty. Try to stay focused regardless of your current circumstance or happiness. Goals are ever changing, some easy, some seemingly impossible. I don't know if I would even classify reaching all of your goals a success. It is more the attempt and dedication to your commitments to yourself and others that dictates success.

Number Two. Bullshit. I mean, in some cases, yes. Wealth, status, and honors can be viewed as successes. But is that all it is to be a success? Hardly.

Number Three. Obsolete? Perhaps.

For many things in life, there are qualifications or criteria that must be met. Whether it is to be accepted into a school or program, get a job, apply for a loan, or live in an apartment. It also extends to aesthetic qualifications- are they attractive enough to date, do I qualify to wear this dress based on how it looks on me?
More importantly, we have to set criteria for ourselves and keep our standards high. These are all by personal definition or interpretation, but in a world that revolves around money, qualifications and credentials, it is hard to not define our success by the amount of money in our wallet, job status, or how nice of a car we drive.

I aim to define my success in different terms-

• Make my own happiness
• Improve other people's happiness
• Work as hard as I can
  
• Be kind to strangers
• Make others laugh
• Stay in touch with the ones I love
• Strive to be better today than I was yesterday
• Don't sweat the small stuff
  
• Laugh REALLY hard at least once a day
• Keep my commitments
• Explore
• Stay in good health
• Learn something new as often as possible

Of course, this list is a work in progress, but when I sat down to identify what was most important to me and what would make me feel like a success, I noticed that none of the things on my list had anything to do with the money in my pocket, how nice my car is, or how many designer pieces of clothing are hanging in my closet. Granted, I stress about having enough money to be comfortable in my life, I want a nice car, and I am addicted to beautiful clothes. But if I think about what I would do if I lost those things, I feel indifferent. When I think about never laughing again, never making someone else laugh or smile, not talking to those I love ever again, losing the ability to learn or explore, it devastates me. I can handle losing the things I have become accustomed to and I would rather die than lose the things I take for granted. Funny how that works. Success will be if I fully appreciate, and express my appreciation for all the things and people that I take for granted. I think life is more about making an impact on others - we are all here for a reason. I don't think my reason is to acquire all the beautiful clothes I possibly can...

Don't take anything for granted, search for your happiness, and cherish the things you tend to take for granted. Don't look in the mirror and feel disappointed in what you see- those things are all fleeting and editable. Look inside yourself and your mind, that is the reflection that matters. Focus on it, and success will follow.

Passing Time

Every day passes quicker than the one before. It's a troubling fact that we hear about from the time we are wee ones, with our parents running about, perplexed that yet another day, week, or month has passed them by. How could this happen when we have yet to do all the things we intended to? Write more, reconnect with friends, purge of old belongings, be better people....

Well, I find this "loss of time" conundrum is becoming increasingly more prevalent and difficult to fight in the 21st century. Every time we turn around there is a new gadget, application, or social media outlet we must engage. Sometimes I try to avoid them, but then I think- in this day and age, being young and immersed in the professional world, there is not a chance of survival if I don't understand and master each one of these gadgets and tools. Thus, we are lost in a sea of electronics and innovation, and time passes us by, faster than it ever passed by the now older generations.

What's the point? Well, if you are complacent in your life and don't mind waking up and wondering where the time went, I guess there isn't a point. But for those of us who wake up with our foot twitching, those who have the tendency to push the gas pedal all the way down, and spend time planning all the places we need to go- we need more. While being relevant through media is the most "it" thing since the Apple and Facebook revolutions, we must also fight for clarity and reality. We exist not only through the fingertips we use to punch the letters to write the words that become our history on the Internet, but also though the feet and the bottoms firmly planted in the chair we perch in as we do so. The chair which sits on the floor of the house, built upon the dirt and the earth, amongst the trees and oceans, underneath the sun and the stars.

Take a moment and reconnect with something aside from your keyboard. Take that moment every day. Live outside media, exist in the space around you. Life passes us by, we may as well try to catch it while we still have the chance.

Sprezzatura

Sprezzatura: An art that seems artless; a rehearsed spontaneity.

It is really the effortful pursuit of the appearance of effortlessness, a dedication to the end result.

How many things in life would we like to seem effortless? Whether it's a well thought out ensemble, walking in sky-high heels, juggling work, homework, relationships, our health, our happiness - we all hope to appear in control. Lack of control can feel like, or be viewed as, weakness. But why is that? Why be afraid to show a little vulnerability? Are we in denial of our own imperfections or do we think others assume we have none, or maybe they just didn't notice yet? Often it is those very flaws, or moments of clear conflict when distress is furrowed in your brow, that we find out who each other really are.

While practiced actions and habits can bring about certain perceptions of grace and elegance for your reputation and granted one would do well to aim to be elegant, remember that all of us have moments where we lack sophistication. The key is to be able to laugh at ourselves in these fleeting moments, when our ankle buckles during our supermodel strut or we lose track of one of the many things in our busy schedule, because this is where true happiness lies, and you just can't fake that.

A Wardrobe Staple

What better than a timeless leather jacket- and a Michael Kors one, no less!

Fall 2012 Fashion Shows

Talk about redefining the little black dress! Texture, texture, texture.
Alberta Ferretti RTW Fall 2012

Stay up to date! Which of course in fashion means stay a few seasons ahead.

What better tool to stay on top of things than WWD.com (women's wear daily, of course). Thanks to them we can still work a full time job and maintain our every day responsibilities while getting updates and a brief synopsis on the best of the best at Fashion Week. From Ralph Lauren, Elizabeth and James, Burberry, and Alberta Ferretti, amongst many others- fall fashion is being redefined once again.

Manolo Blahnik collaborating with J. Crew! Great news! Talk about reviving one of the most classic show icons of this fashion era in a preppy, beautiful way.