090 Haircut First impressions

It's a new day. I'm Kim Gaskill and this is the Daily Spark. You ever hear that saying, dress to impress? There's no second chance at a first impression. All those sayings that we were told when we were younger going applying for jobs. Well, they do have validity. I went into the bathroom this morning, I grabbed the brush to brush my hair and I looked in the mirror and I thought, oh my gosh, I need a haircut so badly. My hair looks awful. Now I understand I'm not one of those women who worries about my hair. I'm a shower, towel dry, and go kind of person. And I don't usually worry about that kind of stuff. I don't wear makeup, but I know a lot of people are very particular about how they look before they go out into public. Now I've been in a hospital bed for the last couple of months, so I haven't really cared about how I look. Now that I'm out and getting back out in the public again, I do have to be concerned a little bit how I look because first impressions matter. And when people look at you or they look at your work, they do form an impression of who you are and how good you are at what you do by how you look, how you carry yourself. And so it takes a lot of energy to do that. It takes a lot of energy to get yourself presentable in other people's eyes, to get your work presentable for other people, because we tend to beat ourselves up about it not being good about enough, about us not looking good enough. I know women that'll change their outfits 4, 5, 6 times before they go out because they want that perfect look and that first impression. That people get of them when they see that perfect outfit. I'm not so much concerned about that, but I am concerned about that when it comes to my work. There are a lot of things I don't put out there even though they have value because I know I can do better. I always think I can add more, but sometimes we have to be okay with what's there, with what we have. If it has value— people look at me, my hair's a mess, they don't care that my hair is a mess. They care what I have to offer as a person, as a friend, as a colleague. They really don't care what my hair looks like. I care what my hair looks like, but you know, I need to get over that and And hopefully if you do that, you need to get over that too, that people who look at us from the outside, people that, that deal with us in business, they're looking for something and they're drawn to us because they see something in us that, that is valuable to them. We may not see it ourself. A lot of times we never see our own value in our person, in our work. In our contribution, but other people see it. So I hope today you don't worry about your hair. If you have things out there that are at 80%, put them out there. If they have value for people, let them have access. And be okay with what you have to offer and with who you are. And catch you again tomorrow for another Daily Spark.