The most important step in your Ladylike journey is developing daily habits to cultivate elegance and class. Habits are tasks we do subconsciously without needing to negotiate with ourselves to complete them. When the time comes, you just do them on autopilot. Such as brushing your teeth, putting on moisturiser, or even the routes you take to work etc. Our habits are formed by doing the same tasks over and over again, day after day. Until we just do them on autopilot, without going through the mental tug-of-wall.
Further, developing elegant habits is critical to elevate your personal brand and confidence. Because what you do consistently will become your ‘personal brand’. And what you do consistently becomes your habit. So it’s a simple formula. If you want to fix your brand, fix your habit! Therefore, if you want to elevate your personal brand from the average Jane to the elegant ‘Lady Jane’, then you need to cultivate elegance and classy habits on a daily basis.
But what does ‘elegant and classy’ habits even mean?
Dictionary.com defined Elegant as “gracefully refined and dignified, in taste, habits or literary style”. And Class as someone “of high quality, integrity, status or style”. We want to develop habits that will make us more elegant and classy. Or put us in an elegant mindset. This will ultimately form part of our traits, qualities or characteristics, which will become your personal brand. Having an established personal brand is ever so important in today’s modern-digital oriented world.
So here are the 9 elegant habits we recommend you to start implementing into your daily lifestyle if you want to cultivate elegance and class to elevate you self confidence, personal brand and your life holistically.
You may also want to read about these must have qualities of a modern classy lady. The themes captured here underpins your ‘whys’ to cultivating the right daily habits for your level-up journey.
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Create an elegant morning routine
Routines and habits go hand in hand. The habit is form once it is built into your daily routines. You may think routines are so boring, and you don’t want to be tied down with mundane routines everyday. I completely get that. However, having a routine for all the mundane stuff will free your mind up think about the bigger things in your life, such as planning your next holiday, creating a business strategy, or in my case, thinking about the content for my next post.
Whether you believe in routines or not, we all carry on life with some form of routine. We need the stability that routines will bring us. It would be so disturbing and unsettling otherwise. For example, waking up at x time every day, showering, going to work, eating, drinking water, etc. If there’s one routine that you want to get right is a morning routine because it will set the mood for the rest of your day.
Therefore, instead of just carrying on each tasks mundanely in the mornings half awake, an elegant lady is intentional with her tasks and routines. So I encourage you to be more intentional with your morning routines and implement tasks that make you feel good about yourself. This will really set you up for a successful day. There is a lot of stay about “starting the day on the right foot”.
These tasks doesn’t have to be anything big. It could just be wake up extra 10-15min earlier so you can sit down to enjoy a proper cup of coffee/tea before you log on to your work machine (or leave for the office). How about implement an elegant beautify routine (i.e. mini. facial) or do your makeup (even if you are working from home). It doesn’t matter what you choose, as long as it makes you feel good afterwards. Add that to your morning routine.
Just to let you know, when I started adding a mini-makeup routine to my mornings, for the days I work from home. I feel so much more elegant. I’m not even doing anything major. I literally just use this By Terry CC serum, my favourite my-lips-but-better nude lipstick and gorgeous blush by Charlotte Tilbury. The whole routine literally takes me less than 5 minutes. And people on the other side of my zoom calls won’t even notice, but it makes a huge difference to how I feel about myself and my confidence! So give it a go!
Implement a healthy evening routine
In my mind, an elegant morning routines starts from the night before. You can’t have an elegant morning routine without getting appropriate amount of sleep. Therefore, implementing a health evening routine should be your priority. When I say healthy, to do just mean going to bed at a decent time. I personally cannot function without 8 hours sleep! And I need to be up by 6:30am, so working backwards, I strive to be in bed by 10:30pm and be deep asleep by 11pm. This means I wake up in the mornings feeling refreshed to carry out my morning routines.
If you’re a night owl, then it’s probably going to take a bit of work to change your body clock. But it’s worth trying different things to help you sleep get better at night. For example, a relaxing skincare routine, take a warm shower or bath, journalling, reading/listening to inspirational podcasts, meditation, etc. Whichever you choose to incorporate into your evening routine, the key is to help you wind down and get you to a deep sleep state quickly.
Non-negotiable personal grooming
An elegant lady is always well groomed and appropriately dressed. They always look polished and put together, even when at home. And I don’t mean full-face makeup in fancy dresses at home. I am talking about having clean hair, tidy nails, and personal hygiene at all times. So get out of your PJs into proper loungewear. These are non-negotiable!
Develop good posture
The one thing that instant elevates you and boosts your confidence is having good posture. Remember when your mum used to tell you to sit up straight? Yep! An elegant lady always has perfect posture. Sit with your back straight. Stand up tall, head straight with shoulders back – this is the confident stance. When she walks, she glides, with her head up like she’s trying to balance a book on your head.
Know your manners and practise etiquette
A little bit of manners goes along way. Always say please and thank yous. That never hurts anyone when overused. But when underused, that’s a different story. A lady with elegance and class is well versed in social etiquette so that she always act appropriately and showing the right respect to the people in every situation. Practically in this modern world where we are exposed to many cultures and diversity. An elegant lady makes an effort to learn about different social etiquettes to prevent any faux pas.
Also just make a habit of practising etiquette, even at home. This could just be having your meals on the dining table with correct utensils, don’t talk with your mouths full, no phones on the dining table, so on and so forth.
Think before you speak
An elegant lady is always composed, calm and collected. She never loses her cool, no matter what situation she finds herself in, she has a way of dealing with every difficult situations graciously. This means, she is deliberate in her actions and her words are meticulously chosen. She thinks before she speaks and is very conscious of how her words make people feel. Because one of the true qualities of an elegant lady is being kind. Even to her enemy, she will choose to be kind and will not blurt words out in spite off. And this is very gracious.
Practise gratitude and being thankful
On a similar vain as being kind, is to be thankful. She practises gratitude in her daily life. She is always thankful and grateful for the good things that enters her life, whether it is big or small, including some of the lessons. This attitude will really puts her on a positive vibration, whereby attracting many good things into her lives.
The best way to practise gratitude is to have a gratitude journal. Write down three things you’re grateful for, every morning before your day starts or evening before you head to bed. I love this 5 minute a day gratitude journal!
Self love and listen to your body
An elegant lady is highly self aware and knows her strengths and weaknesses. She is confident, ambitious and is not shy to push herself beyond her limits. She listens to her body. Not only is she kind other people, but most importantly, she is kind to herself and takes care of her body. She practises self care. Has regular pampering sessions and/or just simply giving herself the permission to put your feet up and rest or sleep.
As a modern lady, there is an expectation that we have to wear many hats, like a mother, a daughter, a wife, an entrepreneur / corporate climber [insert any other roles you have], aka a superwoman and having it all. We need to remember to listen to our bodies and not over-push ourselves. Because a broken body and mind are just not good for anybody. Therefore let’s make a habit of giving ourselves the permission to stop, take a break and be kind to ourselves. And yes, we can have it all, but not all at once.
Learn something new or pick up an elegant hobby
Another habit elegant ladies make time for is ongoing refinement of her existing skills and capabilities. They make time to learn something new or pick up an elegant hobby. Don’t like to waste time on mindlessly social media scrolling or watching trashy TV. Instead, put that time towards something that is intellectually stimulating or doing something creative.
During the lockdown, I picked up flower arrangements. This has really allowed me to explore my creativity and makes me feel so elegant doing it. Not only that, I find it to be so relaxing. And having fresh flowers around the home just elevates your entire lifestyle.
So there you have it. 9 daily habits to cultivate elegance and class. I personally do implement them all. I am not perfect, that’s for sure. Some are performed better than others but doing something is definitely better than not doing anything at all.
You’ll never change your life until you change something you do daily. The secret of your success is found in your daily routine. -John C. Maxwell
o which one of these habits are you already doing and which new ones are you going to implement? Comment down below.
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