Something I've realized is that one of the reasons I've failed to meet some of my recent glow up goals (or have only crawled towards them slowly) is because I've been resisting the reality that beauty genuinely takes up A LOT of time. Not only does the actual activity of grooming, doing makeup, going to salons, appointments etc take up a lot of time, but the amount of KNOWLEDGE and RESEARCH and ENERGY that goes into actually knowing how to achieve your goals effectively.

For example, I've been struggling a lot with hyperpigmentation, and honestly it's something that's been bugging me for a long time now, but it's only over the past month or so where I started to get serious about researching which skincare brands/ingredients do and don't work that I've actually started to make progress on it.

Another example is for weight loss - I've realized that it's not as simple as knowing which weight loss method you're going to use, but actually creating some time and extra bandwith to deal with the mental energy required to sustain a calorie deficit.

I don't know if others relate to this, but I often find myself thinking I need to "squeeze" in my beauty goals around all of the life things that "really matter," like work or errands or chores - then as a result, I begin to resent the amount of time required of me to make progress on glowing up, because subconsciously I have put it into a mental category of unimportant/lower priority/frivolous and I feel irritated and ashamed that I have, for example, spent a whole Saturday afternoon carefully researching and planning my Sephora purchases. I have a mental block around considering that "productive" (even though by my true goals and priorities, that is genuinely a fun and useful use of my time!).

I'm trying to upgrade my mentality to enjoy and delight in the work involved in beautifying myself, because I'm tired of feeling conflicted about the reality that beauty really is a full time job. I want to see the hours I spend as meaningful and useful, even if we live in a world that completely diminishes and ignores the time investment required to look your best.

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