What Are We Dressing For?

My mother-in-law, Happy, loves to come over and visit in the late afternoons and sit by the fireplace outside, weather permitting. She can be quite funny and we so enjoy her visits. This afternoon she is really on a roll and sharing story after story.

“Every day, I am up at 8 a.m., breakfast done, dressed and ready to go nowhere!” Happy shares in a monotone and spur-of-the-moment thought. We are all laughing as this has come right out of left field.
“No, I’m serious, every day, up, dressed and ready to go nowhere!” This revelation has really summed up the afternoon and Happy is ready to head back over to St Catherine’s.

As my brother-in-law backs out of the driveway to take Happy home, I stand there thinking about her words of wisdom for us. How often are we dressing up ourselves, our careers, firms, and businesses with no real plan or vision of what we are dressing for? Are we even putting the right outfits on based on the weather and trends of change?

Are we dressing up just like we did 20 years ago, ten years ago, five years ago or even more relevant today — one year ago?

Let’s take time this week to assess if we are dressing appropriately and most of all — what are we dressing for?