In typical Capricorn fashion, I’m someone who craves efficiency. I’ve always preferred the quickest, most productive route to a goal…sometimes to a fault. I was a sprinter and hurdler in high school, not a distance runner, which feels fitting because pacing myself has never been my strong suit.

In my late teens and early twenties, I had a hard time sitting still wherever I was because I always felt like I needed to be somewhere else. And while I still gravitate toward the most efficient path, I’ve come to realize that always charging forward, head down into the wind, meant I missed a lot along the way. The destination wasn’t always the point.

But this isn’t a post about slowing down and enjoying the journey.  I’m coming to you as an efficiency-obsessed person to talk about something that has been showing up again and again in my work: the law of diminishing returns.

I was reminded of it recently while reading a submission from a potential client. And like so many before it, the story was the same. She had been putting in tremendous effort to build a wardrobe that worked, yet the results were minimal at best.  At this point, I’ve read some version of this hundreds, maybe thousands, of times from women who have reached out in interest in working with me, which tells me something important:  this is not a lack-of-effort problem.

WHAT IS THE LAW OF DIMINISHING RETURNS?

The law of diminishing returns describes what happens when increased effort stops producing meaningful results. Early effort tends to pay off quickly. But over time, each additional unit of effort yields less and less in return, until eventually, you’re working harder for outcomes that barely move.

Sound familiar?

Certainly, when we’re not good at something, the instinct is to try harder. To learn more. To get better. It makes sense to assume that with enough effort, success will follow.  But I see this play out far beyond my clients. I see it in Reddit threads, in my Facebook group, and everywhere in between. Women spinning in circles, clinging to systems and formulas like a Hail Mary pass. Maybe this will finally work.

It’s not all that different from trying to lose weight. You start with something simple, and before long, you’ve read your umpteenth diet book, eliminated an entire food group, followed some wacky influencer’s advice, tried a fad diet, and ramped up your workouts to something barely sustainable.

And yet, here we are.

How many wardrobe “solutions” have you tried, hoping this would be the thing that finally makes it all click? When in reality, all you’ve done is the equivalent of rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic.  To be clear, formulas and accessible tools aren’t inherently bad. They can be helpful, especially when they actually move the needle.  The problem is that, for many women, they don’t.  So if the problem isn’t effort, what is it?  It’s not that you haven’t tried hard enough. It’s that your effort hasn’t had anywhere productive to go.

Most women are pouring time, money, and energy into fixing individual outfits, buying better pieces, or trying the next system they come across. But without an underlying structure, none of that effort compounds. It just accumulates.  Which is why you can try harder than ever, and still feel like nothing is working.

If you want better results, the shift isn’t to do more. It’s to redirect your effort into something that can actually support it.

CHOOSE A DIRECTION

It starts here: you can’t know where you’re going if you don’t have a destination.

Most women are trying to build wardrobes without any clear point of view. They’re buying pieces, trying outfits, following advice, hoping something will click. But without a bigger picture, there’s nothing for those decisions to anchor to.  You need a direction. A story. I can’t do my job successfully without first establishing a narrative.

Think of it like decorating a room in your house. Everything comes together because a direction has been established. A couch or a piece of art can set the tone for where the rest of the room will go. The same thing happens when I build a wardrobe for a client. Sometimes it’s one piece that quietly sets the direction everything else follows.

If filling in an overall picture feels overwhelming, start smaller. Pull a handful of your favorite pieces from your wardrobe. Look at them and ask yourself what makes them your favorites. Is there a common thread? A silhouette, a color palette, a level of polish? That’s where your direction begins.

You can also gather images and look for patterns. Fashion designers always start with a mood board. It’s not just about inspiration; it’s about establishing direction and, more importantly, eliminating what doesn’t belong.

And here’s the second part that doesn’t get talked about enough: you have to trust that direction.

This is where a lot of women get stuck.

Instead of committing to a point of view, they look for consensus. They crowdsource opinions, gather feedback, and keep checking to make sure they’re “right.” But the more input you take in, the harder it becomes to hear your own voice.  It’s the same dynamic you see in any decision where confidence is shaky. You keep asking, keep tweaking, keep adjusting, and end up further away from clarity, not closer to it.  At a certain point, more input doesn’t improve the outcome. It dilutes it.

Which brings us right back to diminishing returns.  Because without a clear direction and the willingness to trust it, no amount of effort is going to produce the results you’re looking for.

DON’T MISTAKE EFFORT FOR PRODUCTIVITY

Even with a clear direction, this is where things often start to go sideways.  Because now you’re doing all the right things. You’re thinking about your wardrobe more intentionally. You’re trying to make better choices. You’re putting in the effort.

But the results still aren’t there.  So what do you do?  You do what any smart, capable person does when something isn’t working. You try harder.  You research more, second-guess your choices, look for a system to follow, or hesitate, waiting for something to feel certain before you commit.  It feels productive.  But it’s not.  In fact, you’re right back where you started.

In fact, this is where diminishing returns really start to take hold. The more effort you pour in, the less you get back. Not because you’re doing something wrong, but because you’re putting your effort in the wrong place.  Instead of making decisions, you’re preparing to make them.  Instead of building a wardrobe, you’re thinking about building one.  And that gap is where so many women get stuck.

KNOW YOUR LIMITS, AND WORK WITH THEM

I am going to hit you with a hard truth: You may never get better at getting dressed and building a wardrobe than you are right now.  I assure you, this isn’t some jerk-face disingenuous, attempt to get you to call me.   It just needs to be said.

There are plenty of things in life I will never be great at. Places I won’t go, goals I won’t achieve, personality quirks I’ll spend a lifetime working on and maybe improve. That’s not defeatist. That’s realistic.  Did I tell you that being a realist is another trait of mine?

Here’s the thing,  there is a quiet belief that with enough effort, every woman should be able to figure out fashion, that it’s something we’re just supposed to be good at, or at least, with enough effort, excel at.  And if you step back for a second, that doesn’t make much sense.  There are plenty of things you don’t beat yourself up for not being naturally skilled at. So why is this any different?

In no way am I telling you, “This is where I let you off to enjoy your unfashionable life.” Quite the opposite.  There is great power in accepting, letting go, and finding peace because it is in this moment that you can stop rearranging those deck chairs and start making changes in a productive manner.  You have to meet yourself where you are. And if that means you’re not naturally skilled stylistically, then that’s your starting point.  And there can be real relief in that.

Have you ever noticed in movies when a criminal is finally caught after running for so long? Yes, they’re caught, but there’s also this strange sense of relief. They don’t have to keep running, outsmarting, managing all that mental bandwidth just to stay ahead.  That’s what letting go can feel like.  You stop trying to force something that isn’t working, and you finally have the clarity to move forward from a place of honesty.  Start from there.

You don’t need to be great at this. You just need it to work, and if you stop and think about it, you can make something work without being great at it.  I pay my bills every month and have a credit score in the 800’s, but I would never claim to be even remotely a financial wizard.    Ask yourself, what does your reality and ability actually support, and how do you move forward?

Do you simplify your color palette so everything works together more easily?
Do you create a repeatable signature look you can rely on?
Do you narrow your options instead of expanding them?

What can you do consistently and efficiently with your wardrobe with the skill set you possess?

That’s the answer.

THIS IS WHERE TRUST COMES IN

If you trace all of this back, the effort, the direction, the decisions, it all leads to the same place.

Trust.

It’s not about trying harder. It’s not about knowing more; it’s about having a way to make decisions productively, and you don’t have to be an expert in fashion to be able to do that.  Without trust, things quietly fall apart.  Not in some dramatic way, but in small interruptions that break momentum.  Maybe you hesitate before buying something, even though it aligns with your direction.  Perhaps you second-guess an outfit that felt right five minutes ago.  You find yourself always for reassurance before committing.   Whatever it is, underneath all of it is the same instinct:  You’re trying not to get it wrong.  So you wait for certainty.  But certainty isn’t part of this process.

There is no version of building a wardrobe that doesn’t involve some trial and error. Some things don’t quite land. Some decisions you’d make differently in hindsight.  You have to be willing to experiment and be willing to be a little off.  You have to be willing to fail. This is how you refine your eye. That’s how you learn what actually works for you and your style.

I’ve seen this shift happen in clients so many times, and, honestly, this is the moment where everything flips. Things don’t get easier because they suddenly know more. They get easier because they stop outsourcing their decisions.  They chose.  They moved forward.  They let those choices stand long enough to build on them.  They created momentum.  You can read more about these clients, here.

 Trust creates continuity. It allows your decisions to stack instead of being undone by doubt.  Without it, everything resets.  With it, even a simple wardrobe starts to make sense.

There is no clean, perfect moment where it all clicks and every decision suddenly feels obvious or where you are fully informed, fully confident, and incapable of getting it wrong.  That moment doesn’t exist.

So if that’s what you’ve been waiting for, for you to finally get your closet straight, you’re going to be waiting for a very long time.  You’ll keep circling.  Keep researching.  Keep trying to optimize something that doesn’t get solved that way, also known as a diminishing return.

Change happens when you stop waiting to feel sure and start acting anyway, which is true for anything, not just your wardrobe.  When you make a decision, not because you know it’s perfect, but because it’s aligned enough, and you trust yourself to adjust if it’s not.

Loosen your grip, stop trying so hard, get rid of the clothes you don’t even like.  Enjoy failure and stumbling, knowing that this is all productive intel and your gut is trying to talk to you.

You’ll figure it out. And if you can’t, it’s okay. I’m here. Schedule a free Image & Style Assessment call with me today by clicking here.