It’s important to define success for ourselves and not by other people’s standards. Some people define success by acclaim or money – for me, the amount of beauty services I can afford are my markers. Why spend all my hard-earned money on beauty treatments? Well, because being beautiful feels so awesome! Success to me looks like investing in my personal beauty, because the most aspirational thing a woman can do is be beautiful and there is nothing to critique about that!
Sure, you can measure your accomplishments by promotions and metrics, but that’s so boring – it’s much more fun to measure productivity by vampire facials and tans. When I feel unproductive, I simply book a beauty service, and then I am motivated to finish my work so I can enjoy a fresh set of lashes or lymphatic drainage massage afterwards.
Success can come at a cost: I have spent so much time and money on being beautiful, and it is not easy. Once I overbooked myself — I had a 3 p.m. with my masseuse and a 4 p.m. with my nail tech. I was cutting it close – could I fix the crick in my neck and the crack in my nail on the same day? Trying to balance being beautiful was turning out to be a full-time job, but I was assured when I remembered my problems are the worries of the successful.
The costs of these beauty appointments add up, so I work harder knowing that my time is being converted into becoming the most glamorous version of myself. When my boss told me I was being promoted all I heard was Botox, hair extensions, and mani-pedis.
To be honest, I know I can’t do my best if I don’t look my best. If I look bad it starts to show up in my work. How can my boss expect me to complete basic tasks if I don’t make enough to get biweekly blowouts and upper lip waxes? Beauty treatments not only define my success, they motivate it.
Imagine the world’s most successful woman in your head, this is a woman who graduated top of her class, climbed up the corporate ladder, and most importantly has really nice hair. Do you think that woman got to where she is by worrying how many Excel spreadsheets she’s made? Nope! The kind of successful woman I want to be is a woman who can afford to pay someone to wash her hair every day.
