REMINISCING 2014

Happy new year!
I hope you all had an amazing night going into 2015!
So much has changed in the past year, I've moved house 4 times, dropped out of uni, quit numerous jobs and worked my absolute hardest and I'm now currently living in London as a Freelance Fashion Stylist. I thought I would share the three biggest lessons that I learnt in 2014...

Don't wait until you're 'ready'
The biggest lesson I've learnt this year, is that you never should wait until you're 'ready' to do what you want, because you will never actually ever be 'ready'. You just have to make the jump to what you want to do and see what happens.

I styled my first music video in February 2014. I remember getting asked to work on it and immediately thinking 'are you serious? I can't do that?!...I'm not ready'.
Although I was anxious and felt completely incapable, I never say 'no' to any opportunities. It just meant I had to work really hard, but looking back the job itself wasn't much of a struggle. It was the first jump towards it that scared me the most...

Last year I ended up styling over 30 shoots, and although I didn't feel at all 'ready' to begin with… if I hadn't taken that jump into it in the first place, I would definitely not be in the position I am now.


Quit Everything
By 'Quit Everything' I'm referring to quitting the obstacles in your life that are preventing you to getting to where you want to be.
This time last year, I was studying Fashion Styling at uni. If I'm honest, I think I went to uni for the 'experience', to get to move to London and of course, because everyone else does it. Obviously, I was keen to get my 'learning' on. But rather than uni moving me forward, I felt like it held me back.
It got to a point that I would be missing uni and waking up at 5am to work until midnight on shoots. I couldn't understand why someone would prioritise a lecture on someone talking about being in the fashion industry, when you could actually be working in the industry.

Because isn't that why people go to uni, to get a job in something they love?
But as much as I said that I wanted to quit uni, I knew i wouldn't. I needed something to really push me to do it. Then got asked to go to LA for 2 weeks to work with another stylist on some music video shoots. It was then that I was put in a position where I had to decide whether to fail uni or have an experience that was going to grow me as a creative.
Obviously, I went to LA.
I can honestly say I learnt more in those 2 weeks than the whole year I was in uni. And to this day, it's the best decision I've ever made.

Stop Caring
When you stop 'caring', you stop over thinking and changing yourself to please everyone. You start doing more of what you want and stop comparing yourself to others.

You become your best self.

If you're constantly comparing and changing yourself to make others happy, you will never meet your full potential. I recently watched an interview with Ed Sheeran, they questioned when the point was that he really started to 'make it' and Ed's reply hasn't left my mind since...

'I started making it when I just stopped caring, when I stopped writing songs to impress record labels and stopped trying to sound like James Blunt'.
When I first began working in Fashion Styling I would constantly compare myself. I thought that if I wasn't creating the same work or up to the same standard as other Fashion Stylists, then I was failing. But if I just aimed to be like every other Fashion Stylist I would only ever be in their shadow and I would only ever be their copy. When you are just a 'copy' you know you will only go so far, when you create you're own thing, there are no limits.

When you stop caring - you start succeeding.


MDB x

photo credit - jake lewis