4 practices to make sure you achieve your fashion career goals this year

2021 is around the corner and after a challenging 2020 I’m sure you want to make the new year YOUR YEAR. The year where you finally achieve your goals for 2020 (which, due to force majeure aka a pandemic, you were unable to achieve) and all your new plans for 2021. I’m sure you are putting a lot on the table so you might need some extra motivation and help to make sure that you get everything done.

This article is chapter 8 of my new book Your Fashion [Dream] Plan titled CAREER MOOD BOARD, MOTIVATIONAL ALARMS, AND SHOPPING REWARDS. These four daily practices will boost your motivation and concentration to make sure that you’ll go through all your plans by the end of the next year!

I have to admit, until a few years ago, I was one of those people who makes a list of resolutions on January 1st, and every year it’s almost always the same. In the last two years, however, my list for the new year has been different from the previous one. Not because I’ve changed my mind about what I want, but because over the past twelve months I managed to check most things off my list, both personal and professional.

At a certain point, I realized that it made no sense to make that list every year if nothing, or almost nothing, had changed. Perhaps I had achieved some other goals that year, but if that was the case, it’s because they just happened. I no longer wanted to leave things only to chance. If you plan to go to New York but you find an amazing airfare deal to London, you take it,  or if you had the goal of working at Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar calls, you respond. When these unexpected things happen, you have to be open to welcoming them; planning does not mean giving up on everything else that is not on the list regardless.  I decided I wanted to take control of my life by taking action towards what I had established as my priorities and goals while still being open to the unexpected (after all, I love surprises).

As much as we would like, it is impossible to always stay highly motivated if we don’t stimulate our mind on a daily basis.

We are all super busy, we have a thousand things to think about, it is easy to lose focus. So, writing down your goals and being determined is not enough. Our mind needs some assistance. I decided to change my mindset in order to stay focused. In this chapter, I want to share with you four practices that have made a huge difference in achieving results and have allowed me to take that giant step between saying and doing.

1.Write down your goals every single day

I am a stylist based in Los Angeles who dresses celebrities. I am the buyer of a department store.

I am a designer and I have my own fashion brand. I am a web merchandiser of a luxury e-commerce.

Over the past year I’ve started writing my goals every single day, first thing in the morning.

Now you are probably thinking that writing down goals every single morning sounds crazy, but trust me it will help you immensely in maintaining focus, motivation, and setting the right mindset for each new day. Take a diary and use it just to write down your goals each morning. You can also do this while you’re still in bed if you want.

Writing down your goals and not taking action obviously won’t change your life, but doing this simple task in themorning will motivate you and remind you every single day to take action. Your unconscious will work and act for you! Writing down your goals instead of leaving them just in your mind doubles the chance of achieving them. Here we want to increase this possibility even more, by writing them not just once, but every single day.

I want to give you an example of how this concept of writing goals every day (that might sound crazy) actually works.

Something amazing happened in March 2020. I was included in the Forbes Under 30 list , the famous annual list of influential people. I only found out about it the day before the issue was released on newsstands and online, and it was a (positive) shock for me. I was included in the Education section for my work with Glam Observer, guiding those who want to work in fashion. Would you believe me if I told you that every morning starting on January 1, 2020, I had written among my goals: I’m on the Forbes Under 30 list?

I have admired the people on that list for years, and one of my resolutions for 2020 was to see my name among all the other entrepreneurs! I wanted to make my dream a reality this time. So I knew I had to go from a dream to a goal. I started writing it every day as one of my goals, and then it happened. There is something powerful about writing down your goals and visualizing yourself doing what you love.  You start attracting all the things that will make it happen and if you  do it every day imagine how much you can attract! My story is just one example. If I did it, you can too! Another goal for 2020 was to publish a book, and guess what? Having it on my list and writing it as a goal every day prompted me to finally start writing the book. Of course, just writing to become a best-selling author doesn’t make it happen, but it gave me inspiration and motivation, and I think I started attracting all the things I needed to publish it. Every day writing that goal reminded me that I had to do something to reach it: the first day I wrote down the content outline, the following day I wrote that goal again, which motivated me to do some research, the next day I began writing the first words of the book, etc…

While this is a career book, it doesn’t mean your goals need to be only professional. I write about ten goals, a mix of personal and professional. I think the right focus and motivation allows you to have that perfect balance of career and personal life.

I know that there are many people who say that you cannot have a successful career and an equally fantastic private life, especially if you are a woman. But I think that you can get everything you want and find the right compromises without having to give up one or the other. This practice helps me stay focused both on my personal and professional life.

So, from today on, write down your goals every morning:

• I am a buyer who travels between Milan, Paris, London, and New York
• Visit Marrakech Buy a house
• Turn my internship into a job
• Get a raise
• …

Don’t wait for the following year but expand your list as soon as you reach your goals (we are ambitious here!)

2. The Inspirational Career Mood Board

One day, while watching The Intern, one of my favorite movies, I realized how much more motivated I am the day after I watch it. Jules Ostin (played by Anne Hathaway) is an entrepreneur who has built her own fashion company (if you haven’t watched that movie yet, do it now, you’ll love Robert De Niro as a 70-year-old intern) and I saw myself in her with Glam Observer: starting from scratch and creating a successful company with a team of hundreds of people (I don’t have a team of hundreds of people yet but hope to soon and that’s where the motivation comes in!). When I wanted to get my job in fashion, I had the same feelings whenever I watched The Devil wears Prada.

Then I realized…

Images motivate me enormously. And so I started thinking about a way to give my mind this inspirational dose daily.

Of course, I can’t watch that movie every day,  but I can look at images every day. I started thinking about my goals and associated an image with each of them, then created a collage and set it as the background for my desktop and smartphone. Looking at it every day pushes me, even unconsciously, to take action!

Let’s focus again on your fashion career goal. Choose images that inspire you in relation to it: the office of your favorite company, a photo of an editor, stylist, or anyone who you admire who has your dream job…

Collect the images, create a mood board, and use it as the background of your smartphone and desktop and, if you want, print it and hang it where you can see it every day. If your mind visualizes the goal, it will begin to act together with you and lead you to success. (the image you see at the top of the article is just an example of how your career mood board could look like).

Looking at these pictures and visualizing your goal will inspire you enormously and give you the energy and motivation you need to take action every day and make your dream a reality. You can update the images whenever you have a new goal.

3. Set up reminders

Getting discouraged and caught up in negative emotions is easy on any journey. Being your own cheerleader is essential, but some days it’s more difficult than others.

During coaching calls with the students of my online course Break into the fashion industry, more often than not, I find myself reminding you of how much you are worth and that you can do it. Some girls told me that, if they could, they would call me every day for the motivational dose I give them. So I thought of a way to be with you every day (me, or the person who inspires you the most, if you prefer to imagine that it is Miuccia Prada who tells you everything’s ok!)

Set up reminders on your smartphone that recur every day at various times of the day (except on weekends when youneed a well-deserved rest), and write quotes that motivate and remind you once again of your goal:

“I can do it,” “I’m enough,” “I’m a stylist and I work in New York,” “I see you are a little down, but it’s all in your head. Keep going.” “Today will be great.” “I’ll do it anyway.”

Imagine all of these pop-ups throughout your days that remind you where you want to go and make you smile (because let’s be honest, if someone else saw our phones they would almost certainly think we’re crazy, and even the humor of that will uplift your mood).

4. Shopping Rewards

Even though the focus of this book is your career, we’re still talking about fashion, so I’m sure that at least once a month you add something new to your wardrobe, and at least once a week you visit your favorite online stores to check the new arrivals and add some items to your list. From today on, buy something after you’ve achieved a goal or taken action towards it.

For example:

• I’ll only buy that new perfume when I have contacted all thirty fashion companies/people that I have on the list.
• I will purchase this new coat only if, at the end of the month, I have applied for five internships or jobs every day.
• I will write five articles and, as soon as I’ve sent all the emails and pitched the magazines, I’ll buy myself my favorite cake!

This practice will not only keep you motivated, but it will make you feel satisfied because you will earn a reward that is well- deserved for the work you did.

When you get a job, your salary compensates you for the work done. But job hunting is a job itself! It’s only fair that you deserve some credit for your commitment to get a job. So even if no one pays you for your job search, you can reward yourself by treating yourself with something new to pay yourself for your hard work.

The right mindset will push you to take action every day, not to give up, and keep moving forward until you have reached your goal. These four practices will help you enormously to maintain that dose of motivation and inspiration you need to remember where you are going. The first two chapters in this section of the book have been very practical. You may want to read them again and come back in a few months, or whenever you feel you need to, to get back on track with your life. These practices will help you live your life to the fullest by becoming who you want to be and accomplishing your goals.

I would be so happy if you would like to share your career goals in fashion with me. Tag me at @glamobserver on Instagram  or write me at [email protected] and share your mood boards and shopping rewards with me 🙂

This article is an excerpt of chapter 8 of my new book Your Fashion [Dream] Plan titled CAREER MOOD BOARD, MOTIVATIONAL ALARMS, AND SHOPPING REWARDS.