Look Your Best in Half the Time!

Reducing the amount of time it takes to get ready in the morning is an unbeatable chal1enge for many women. There's the all too familiar panic of sleeping through a couple "snooze alarms," dealing with the kids, finishing last night's project and answering e-mail. Then, to add insult to injury, what about the common hysteria that comes from not knowing what to wear that morning? The result: less time to get ready and still feel good about the way you look. It's for this reason that women need all of their resources to handle the traditional early morning frenzy.

For many women, implementing real change in the pace of one's morning routine means getting down to the brass tacks of self-image. Fascinating as it may seem, few women have ever invested the time or money to understand and embrace the images that define them. When they do, they gain knowledge, and their feelings of confidence, empowerment and control soar. Inevitably they wish they had embraced this concept years earlier.

Let's face it: women are their own worst critics, which is why they cannot count on themselves for an objective point of view. Alternatively, to achieve success in image awareness and enhancement, some women work with an image consultant. By engaging in considerable dialogue, an image professional helps women establish, visualize and determine how best to achieve their image goals. Through this process, the image advisor knows how and where to focus clients' specific image education and can help women avoid frustration, insecurity and indecision, the common time wasters, that result in not knowing how to use morning time efficiently.

Creating the Right Image for You

Working with an image enhancement partner, women can learn to use the following criteria to improve the way they look and feel. While these steps may seem complex initially, once learned, they become second nature.

Color Analysis -- Determine which colors harmonize with your own natural skin, hair, and eye tones. This knowledge makes it easy to choose the colors that look best for your wardrobe, makeup and hair color.

Body Analysis -- Learn about designs and fabrics and why certain options look better on you than others. That information gives you tremendous versatility and enables you to mix and match easily. From there, the type of accessories that should accompany an outfit will flow naturally.

Lifestyle Analysis -- Use your information about personal lifestyle to determine what you need in a wardrobe. For instance, how many hours do you work each week? Do you go to the movies on the weekend? Do you attend formal affairs occasionally? How much of your wardrobe accommodates these events? Do you need to expand your wardrobe or will buying a few accessories do the job?

Head & Face Shape Analysis -- When you analyze the shape of your face, you will begin to see features and bone structure that dictate the best recommendations for makeup, hair design, jewelry and eyewear selections. Choose a haircut that works with the hair's natural texture which means less effort for a better look and less styling time. Take a makeup lesson from a professional with a focus on minimum application of products. Then purchase makeup in the same color family as your core wardrobe.

Desired Image Analysis -- Visualize how you want to be regarded and interpreted by others. By using these new skills you can take greater control over others' perceptions of you and behaviors toward you.

Using these five tools, you can work at turning your vision of the right image into reality. You'll be able to make your morning decisions quickly and expediently because you've gained a thorough understanding about what's right and why.

Out the Door in 30 Minutes

Imagine getting out the door in less than 30 minutes -- relaxed and without commotion. It's true. Women who have completed a course in self-image improvement perform routine tasks in minimal time with minimal effort.

* Shower/Brush Teeth (10 minutes)

* Choose outfit (3 minutes)

* Makeup (5 minutes)

* Dry/Style hair (10 minutes)

Total Time: 28 minutes

For some women, these allocations represent a 30% to 50% reduction in the time it takes to get ready. That's the reward to women who use focus, knowledge and a positive self-image as the basis for their morning routine.

Since it's common knowledge that appearance affects attitude, why not use this information to make the "I don't know what to wear morning blues" become a fading memory and walk out the door one step ahead of the crowd, looking your best in half the time?

Renee Lefko is the President of Working Image, an image and wardrobe consulting company based in Agoura Hills.