It takes courage to change, to step into the unknown. People fear change because success is not guaranteed. One of the areas of change that people fear most is their personal image. Some people know that change is necessary, but their cleverness, their ego, what I term "smart" put them behind.

This is a typical question prospects ask me -

"How long does it take to go through an image transformation?"

My answer: 2 days. Maximum 3 days. This includes the analysis of best styles and colours, wardrobing, shopping and make up.

People who take longer than that, are people who doubt, and take too much time analyzing each step that was given, not following what they have learned. Some even stop in the middle of the process because of doubt. Most doubters are very smart people. They measure new processes against what they know. If they are not familiar with it, they back off, to fearful to move on.

The best candidates for image transformation are those who are most humble - willing to drop what they perceive to be the best, and just be led by the hand through the process. These people get the most out of an image transformation. They are not necessarily the richest who are able to buy the best of the best, nor the smartest. But they certainly learn faster than the richest and the smartest.

The worst candidates? Unfortunately, some of these people are the smartest, most successful people in the "worldly" ways. Yet inside they are still children who want help with their style and confidence. The smarter people are (and most of the time, the bigger their egos), the more opinionated they are about how the image transformation process should be done. They want to see everything - the end result, before we even get there. Image transformation is a work of art - bits are revealed through each step of the process. An image consultant somewhat of an artist - being in this role, I cannot rush the process to give clients projected results before going through it. The humble ones trust the process and the answers that are being revealed. I can say - it succeeds 100% of the time.

I never knew how being smart could hold a person back before, but being in this business enabled me to learn just how. By being humble, a person learns fastest and most. I know this because I was one smart girl - it took me seven years to take down my wall of "smartness" to be able to go into the unknown. The results are still not predicable, but an important lesson I have earned is to stay present, and be open to all possibilities.

Noelle Wong sees and unveils beauty in people. She is the owner of iN-IMAGE! Inc., a personal image consulting company in Toronto that offers one-on-one consultations and workshops to help people increase their personal presence. For inquiries please contact her at noelle@in-image.com. Her website is http://www.in-image.com