At Out the Office we have been touched by this viral video about women’s choices and perception of what is beautiful. I’m proud to announce at Out of the Office, it’s an 80% split of “beautiful” girls and 100% of “beautiful” men. However, it’s the missing 20% of women in our office we know to be beautiful, and why they didn’t #choosebeautiful; that is the basis of our discussion.
Firstly, how can anyone describe themselves as average? By definition it is a number expressing the central or typical value in a set of data, which is calculated by dividing the sum of the values in the set by their number. There is nothing about the way we look which is typical and therefore we can never deem ourselves as average. There’s nothing about our personality that is measurable as average, so let’s start on a positive that we none of us are average!
But let’s face it we all know beauty is not skin deep. The most beautiful person can be made very ugly by their persona.
Watching his viral video, we were concerned to see outwardly beautiful young girls choosing to walk through the average entrance, but why? The same reason why 20% of our office choose average? Equally, where do those who are not as outwardly beautiful find the inner confidence to stride with confidence through the “beautiful entrance? Does it come down to what you believe to be beautiful and your self-worth and confidence? Where does that come from?
This begs the question, why did all the men in the office #choosebeautiful? Being in a teambuilding company, their job is to bring out confidence and self-worth in the guests we represent, therefore is that why our male ‘Event Managers’ were able to see beyond physical appearance to find the confidence to #choosebeautiful? Or do men care less about either the way they look or people’s opinions?
We believe confidence is integral to this choice. The ladies in the office on questioning were more embarrassed to outwardly declare their beauty, rather than have a true belief that they were actually average, and declared if they were asked anonymously they would be more likely to #choosebeautiful.
Top tips to #choosebeautiful
1. Find something new you like about yourself
2. Tell someone else something you think is beautiful about them
3. Remember your confidence looks beautiful to those around you
4. Smile at yourself in the mirror
5. Do something to laugh at yourself
Without wanting to sound cheesy, we are all beautiful in our own right; whatever parts we obsess over in the mirror, we can all find something beautiful about ourselves. In the words of Dan Solen Head of Events, “we are all beautiful in our own way, some more than others” (with a large cheeky grin and a point at his chest).
The main thing we derived from this is we need to have belief in our inner beauty. It’s fantastic to feel beautiful outwardly too, and we were proud of those girls that strutted their stuff through the beautiful entrance. In our office this got nothing but “Go girl” and “good on you!” and they certainly looked more beautiful with this show of confidence. I think the lesson here is if we don’t feel beautiful, we need to feel that inside with the help of those around us, to remind us. The mum that dragged her daughter through, those that on reflection wish they’d chosen beautiful are all reasons for us all to make sure those around us in our office feel beautiful today.
Outheoffice.com ask you all to #choosebeautiful today; go and tell someone they did a good job, tell them you like their hair or notice their new dress. If anyone in your office makes a negative choice today, it will be easier with a supportive colleague to make the positive choice for them.