After school I couldn't go into a bowling alley without assessing their cash intake as I asked for rental shoes. I calculated the overhead as you ordered a Coke on a date. I pondered margins on a Starbucks mug waiting for a client. When you are enveloped in this bubble of thinking, that everything is a business, you form calculated strategies around...life. It’s a horrible and yet very effective way to be birthed into the real world. Business school changed how I think to how I approach life situations like case studies. If this is naturally how you think, good. This could how you should determine a major. 

To exercise my creativity, one time, I took on more people issues for a work project. The formula I envisioned was: people + connections = creativity. Somehow this made sense to me but the "how to solve a management crisis", turned into "how to lessen the financial impact during the management crisis." No matter what avenue I explored during my business career, it all came down to dollars and sense. They say you can think out of the box to form solutions but you don't have the same mindset as if I majored in something else. I worked for Fortune 500 companies and internet startups for 10 years. I wanted a change, to be more...me.

I do want to say that business is not a bad thing...money is not a bad thing. It sometimes leads to political catastrophe and big business bribery but also bitcoins' success with teen entrepreneurs, fair trade not aid associations and mom and pop successes. When you study something for 4-6 years, you adopt a frame of mind that is just not easy to change. Perhaps when choosing a major, look to match your mindset and how you think best, instead of the actual subject matter. Yes, science is different than design in a lot of ways but technical design and engineering are not. When you plunge into a major you should dive more into...yourself. That's how certain anthropology majors can easily get into certain fields of advertising for example. It's the way you think that will help steer your career in various directions throughout your life, no matter how many times you change. 

Let's take design thinking which could have been an alternative major for me - business with dashes of creativity built in. It's a creative process looking at user issues redefining problems, resulting in qualitative or financially viable next steps. I sort of do that now with (fashion) design and the classes I teach. I creatively redefine problems resulting in clear, structured next steps for you guys. This is a mindset, first and foremost around creativity and the artistic process. Design school helped cognify that but I probably wouldn't have been able to do it without the business background.

It's funny what you remember years back. Remember that "faux" date with that B school dude years back? I wore a burgundy flannel top, grey t-shirt underneath, levis and brown brogues and my hair half up and half down on the “date” with the B school dude. I couldn't even tell you what I wore at graduation.

That probably should have been a clue. I should have been looking forward to the next step in my life called the real world. Happy You and Happy Sunday, Tyese
​To be continued.

This is an interview transcript when I did a workshop about goal setting earlier this year. 

What makes these 5 ways to manifest your 2020 goals so...unexpected?
Sometimes we think obtaining goals is such a hard thing to accomplish. At least for me, at one point in the not too distant past, I considered it a big project! I had to make time for it, maybe do a workshop or get a life coach to help. The task seemed so large, I didn't even want to tackle it. So....I didn't. These 5 ways are easy to do ...take like 5 min out of our day and are creative...an unexpected way to get what we want.

What are your 5 unexpected ways and why do you think they are a part of sustainability? I thought sustainability had to do with saving our planet. It's true, sustainability can mean so many things to different people. And there's lots of words to describe it. There's eco, eco-friendly, eco-chic, environmentally friendly, sustainable, fair trade, handmade, locally made, slow fashion, upcycled garments [where you use the existing resources that you have to create something new], vintage, recycled/second hand garments and more. Usually these terms effect the OUTSIDE things like landfill or less waste on our streets. But it means also that we are careful to put things on our bodies and inside our bodies things that matter. Sometimes these "things" are thoughts and energy and positivity instead of objects. Let's think of it as perfectly sustainable things that last like images.

So then what are your 5 things?

The 5 unexpectedly ways to manifest your goals are things like vision boarding for life changes, mood boards as a career guide, closet clean-outs for clearer thinking, anti-plastic diet for  more conscious living and new cleansing habits for a more zen and thoughtful attitude around your goals. 

This is super interesting Tyese. There is a lot to unpack here. Where should we start?

Each month we will dive deeper into each of these items on my blog, You Tube and of course my instagram page. First, we will talk about creative vision boards for the goals you want. My clients and I mostly talk about fashion style goals, business goals but their everyday habits in life directly effect those goals. We will dive deep into why it effects you and what to do to advance your goals. ​