3 Things Every Man Should Know About Being Stylishly Themselves

Follow these 3 V’s – Vibe, Values, and Visibility

You know you can’t seize the spotlight by siting on the sidelines; you have to stand up, showcase your style and make it happen. The challenge is to get rid of doubt and finding your vibe. The strategy I will provide for you will make upgrading your space very simple.

Many men are in need of a strategy for moving and speeding their trajectory forward. With a clear strategy for creating a home of your own, tailored to you, your confidence, comfort, and peace of mind will return full steam.

Perhaps your life or consciousness has just shifted, exposing you to a whole new world of opportunities and choices? Welcome to a fresh clean slate allowing you to relish in your individuality.

Here Is How You Can Step Up Your Home Game And Establish a Reflection of Your Greatest Self.

Just like the suit is the basic building block of looking good - timeless and adaptable. I’m here to save you from the danger of too many choices – it could result in a sloppy and unfocused interior. Get the basics down and then infuse you into the details.

Most of you single men understand the importance of dressing well and
doing whatever it takes to physically look your best. It is normal to want to project the greatest aspects of yourself to the world. Your home's interior condition speaks a thousand words and
if it reflects a disconnection between the YOU you present to the world and the YOU it aesthetically reflects – it’s saying the wrong thing! Note to single men - More than ever before, women are looking at your home to see what you truly value.
Think about this – Wouldn’t you like your home to send a message about you
that says that you are accomplished, professional, smart,
confidant, and at the top of your game? The goal should be to create an amazing looking interior that reflects who you are, your accomplishments and values, in addition to supporting
your ideal lifestyle.
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It’s not just about appearances and the lasting either negative or positive impression it can have on guests. - Did you know that the way your home looks, feels, and functions has a direct impact on
your frame of mind and therefore your success? Your level of productivity, influence, empowerment, efficiency, and well-being are constantly being influenced by your surroundings. For some of you it’s no surprise that your home can support you as you thrive or it can create roadblocks to your
personal and professional success. To learn more about this check out my article Design is the Key to Mastering Your Personal and Professional Life.

Something I see abundantly as a huge problem for men when it
comes to designing their home is the lack of a strategy plan and
knowledge of a process. As a result they tend to design by default and
disregard this important aspect of their life.

I'm going to give you a beginning
strategy that will remove uncertainty from the equation of
creating a home that serves your goals and ideal lifestyle. If you follow these steps you are
equipped with the tools you need to at least get started on tackling this area
of your life, which I guarantee will have lasting benefits.

So Here it Goes!

The Goal – The goal is to create a home that serves and supports you. It’s about designing from the inside out and being proactive in creating that which you desire in life experiences and material comfort. There is a hierarchy in its creation and each of these areas should be addressed accordingly.

Step 1

THE VIBE

The first and most important aspect of creating a home that serves you is to consider the feeling that you want it to induce. This is so important because it acts as your compass when you select items for you house. It would be wise to purchase items that you love that speak to this goal. It acts as the unifying principle for every decision you make going forward. How do you know what tangible and visual expressions would make you feel that way? Although there are many aspects to design, for the sake of getting you started with this strategy simply focus on two basic components that would need to be addressed to bring clarity to this question – color and material. Simply look closely at that place, what do you see? Identify the three dominate colors. Do you see a dominate material such as wood or metal? What is the second most prominent material? This will help to establish your color palette and type of furnishings you can begin to scout.

Feel free to consider all design principles. If you happen to be someone who is very visual, that may come very easily to you. Observe and determine an outline that you would like your home to inspire in respect the following principles: Symmetry/Asymmetry, Balance, Contrast, Texture, Form, Rhythm, Balance, Proportion, and Scale. (To learn more about these see my You-Tube video tips)

As a side-note worth mentioning - There are 2 different ways of addressing your home in respect to the feeling you want it to stimulate.

A.            If you have a larger house and the areas are distinctly separate than its best to focus on the space individually then realize that you can if you so desire to, create a different vibe in each space according to the desired functionality of each space.

B.            If your home is smaller in scale like in a condo or rental space plan where each area is visually open to all others then consider choosing a single vibe that you want to dominate the entire home.

Step 2

YOUR VALUES

Second part of the design hierarchy is in respect to your values and desirable lifestyle. I mention these as one because it is likely that your lifestyle reflects your highest values already. What you value most in life is that which you naturally make time for. There is nothing like real life experiences that speak to your values to have a joyful life. Is it friends and family? Is it music? Is it nature? Is it rest? You want your home to accommodate the easy engagement of your values.

How would that translate into your ideal and supportive design? For instance, if friends and family are a high priority for you – Do you have the right number of dining chairs and table length to accommodate them when they are over? Maybe for you to have an optimally functioning home office is important because of how much you value your professional success. Another example – It may be that your kids are one of your highest priorities. Something that I see often as a problem for single men who have school-aged children is that they are unsure of how to make the space accommodate their kids’ sense of security and well-being as well as make it a place they love being at. There are ways to validate them for who they are and make them feel that they can express their individuality in their home. (To learn more about how you can do this for them, please see my You Tube video)

Once you have identified these 5 highest values you can create your design priority list based upon them. This information will also help with establishing your design budget. These 5 aspects of your home should take precedence (unless you are planning on selling and need to increase market value of your home…this is a whole other matter altogether and not addressed here.)

Step 3

INTENTIONAL VISIBILITY

Third part of the design hierarchy is a deeper attention to detail. There are 2 components to this third step.

a.       Establish the presence of only items that have positive memory associations for you. This has a profound impact on your mental state of well-being that you are often consciously unaware of. My suggestion is to scan your home for any items that embody negative associations. Literally consider the initial immediate memory that your mind constructs as you focus on each item individually. If anything has a negative association attached to it, please consider removing it if not completely then at least from your visibility.

On the other hand, if the negatively charged items are of sentimental value then consider altering your mental perspective until you can observe the object as a positive reflection of that which it represents. What this does is shifts it from something that disempowers or saddens you to something that empowers and lifts you based upon your consciously chosen interpretation of it.

b.      This step also includes any structural elements and architectural details inherent to your home’s interior that is not appealing to you. You can find ways to “hide” these parts through lighting and paint that will either darken or draw the eye away from these areas, and/or furniture/accessory placement that will physically cover the disliked areas. (To learn more about this please see my You-Tube video tip)

The Summary
1. You established the VIBE you want your space to have when you are at home. You know the general color palette and material selections that you could incorporate to accommodate that feeling. This will bring some focus and clarity to the process. Keep in mind that this is just a starting point and just because the colors you would like to see are blue, beige, and black for instance, doesn’t mean that you simply go out and buy blue, beige, and black paint and start painting the walls!!! There is a science to making it all work based upon the chosen hue’s underlying colors, the value, tint, and tone of the paint.   

2. You established your Values. You now know what you need to accommodate a lifestyle that supports your values therefore you have your priority list.

3. You now have the VISUAL presence of only items that leave positive impressions on your subconscious assisting in the creation of a heightened state of well-being.

Design - The Key to Mastering Your Personal and Professional Life

Intentional Interior Design - The Key To Mastering Your Personal and Professional Life

I work with people who understand that environment is critical to their success in both their professional and personal life. Through the application of design I remove obstacles that may be preventing or slowing their success in certain areas and focus on creating home and office environments that enhance their personal power, influence, productivity, efficiency, and peace of mind. Designing with this intention influences each aesthetic and functional decision I make. It requires me to understand my clients' individuality, their highest values, goals, aspirations, and achievements. This information provides me with the tools I need to deliver thoroughly individualized interiors that bring my clients to a heightened state of well-being.

The inspiration for starting my own company is a result of being discontent with working in a world where the power of design was being greatly diluted and projected onto materialism, status ideology, and being manipulated by trends set by the industry. Even throughout the course of my design education I did not see any intention to alter environments for a higher purpose.

With that said, Interior Design can be far more purposeful and influential than you may realize. Perhaps you never even gave it a second thought, but the truth is that your physical surroundings can be intentionally designed for the purpose of personal optimization.

I will explain to you exactly how your office and home interiors could be possibly interfering with your progress toward both personal and business success without you even realizing it. In addition, I’ll provide you with some design insight regarding 8 aspects of yourself that could potentially multiply your success.

Although my expertise, experience and education is in design, my understanding of the mind and certain universal principles supports the dominating focus behind my company. My knowledge about aspects of psychology, neurology, quantum physics is through self-guided study and is no more than the average person. Although, I am thoroughly fascinated because I see the connection among them and interior design.

There is a two part equation to this connection.

The first part of the equation is in respect to our subconscious mind. Our environment is always having an impact on our state of being. Our state of being is how we think and therefore how we feel. This dictates our behavior, and it is our behavior and choices that create our outcome.

Here is the key point – There are deeply embedded beliefs we all hold about ourselves - how much physical comfort we deserve, how much material wealth and success we are capable of acquiring, how much aesthetic beauty we are worthy of surrounding ourselves with.

By default our behavior and choices have a natural tendency to function in accordance with our subconscious beliefs and paradigms of ourselves and our reality unless we proactively choose otherwise. Therefore, it is likely that for most people, currently by default the interior of their home reflects these beliefs which continually reinforces certain experiences and circumstances in their life that are not in alignment with what they consciously intend to create for themselves.

My value proposition embraces the fact that you can actually create an environments that effectively influences your own behavior as well as the behavior of others, with the intent to create the outcomes you truly desire.

Here is the second part of the equation in respect to the connection I indicated above and that which supports my value proposition.

The science of quantum physics proves that atoms are essentially 98% energy and therefore so are we. Because of this fact, our potential is therefore endless within the parameters of universal laws. What this tells us is that we are only bound by our own thoughts and beliefs. With continual proactive attention to your thoughts we can choose to alter the direction of our experience of life. Due to the fact that our surrounding are always influencing our state or being, we can proactively alter them to support a more sustaining, prosperous and supportive thought patterns. Lastly, just we are energy, so are our thoughts and energy attracts like energy. So if you alter your thoughts to be more in alignment with your values and true goals then you will draw into your life these experiences.

These aspects of how the mind and the universe work are seemingly in opposition although, if you look closely you’ll see it is just a paradoxical reality.  Being proactive means utilizing the second part of the equation.

This connection isn't, by a long shot, my own discovery. Looking back over many centuries and throughout many cultures there has been methodologies that support this truth such as, the science of Feng Shui and Ayervayda. The connection is simply an ancient wisdom that I resonate with and incorporate into my own practice because I see that it is extremely valuable.

As I mentioned, Intentional Interior Design happens to be an effective methods for creating the life you desire.  So, the first few questions I ask my clients are: What is the outcome that you specifically and truly desire? What are your business and professional goals? What do you really want to attract into your life? Is it more success in your career, a more fulfilling lifestyle, the engagement of things that you are passionate and inspired about? Are these goals in alignment with your highest values? What aspects of yourself, your strengths, do you want to capitalize on? This is where we start and their answers act as my guide throughout the design development.

Your home and office have the greatest capability to influence all areas of your life because they hold the embodiment of your energy – this is where you spend the most time. Here is what I focus on with my clients and these are my suggestion for you if you want to begin thinking about ways that you can improve your environment. Pay particular attention to these 8 areas of your life, which are all inextricable by the way.

1.       Optimizing Your Level of Productivity and Effectiveness by Creating a Stress Reducing Environments that Address all 5 of Your Senses. Example – There is abundant evidence supporting the fact that the visual presence of plants reduces our stress response significantly.

2.       Increasing Your Level of Comfort Through Visual and Functional Support of Your Highest Values

3.       The Support of Your Goals By Leveraging Effectiveness and Efficiency Through Attention to Functionality

4.       The Facilitation of Your Vision of the Lifestyle that Would Bring you the Most Fulfillment.

5.       The Visual Representation and Increased Ability to Engage in Things That Inspire You

6.       Increase Your Confidence Through Establishing a  Reflection of Your Greatest Self

7.       Creating a Heightened State of Well-Being and Happiness by the Display of Items That Have Positive Associations for You.

8.       Utilize and Enhance Your Indirect Influence on Others 

I’d like to elaborate on this last one a bit because from a business perspective, it is very important.

If you have clients that are actually visiting your office, you have a little secret tool that you really should be utilizing. It would be wise to think about how you want the space to make them feel and how you want them to perceive you.

Your clients are always picking up unconscious impressions and making judgments according to how their immediate surroundings are making them feel – the way it looks, smells, and physically feels. For instance, in our culture the color blue causes us to feel trust. It literally alters neuro-activity that stimulates a hormonal reaction that sends a message that you can “trust” this person or this situation. There is an huge amount of evidence that supports marketing efforts that influence others in such a way. The point being, if your office environment does not positively influence their state of being, it could adversely influence their decisions.

In closing, this capacity of design that I have just demonstrated is often overlooked, but now you know that design can be used as a tool to break boundaries about yourself, create more success in all aspects of your life, and to inspire and relish confidently in your individuality. Not to mention its facilitation of positive memories and experiences.

I focus on design for men exclusively because male energy has a different sensibility that I really admire and enjoy seeing and focusing my attention on. Also, I see a gap in the design industry whereby men are largely left out of the equation, yet environment is just as important and influential to them as it is to women. It's just that way because it has been imposed by society to be that way. That doesn't represent a thriving reality.

My suggestion is that you take a hard look at your office and your home and see if there are any functional road blocks or discomfort in respect to all 5 senses that could be negatively influencing both you and your clients and choose to become the master or your life through intentional interior design.

Lisa Marie Anzaldua