- Amuse yourself with anything, even the quotidian stuff; get amazed daily. Brigitte Bardot was amused with the little things: anything that glitters or makes funny noises, feathers, crystals, bedroom slippers (really), someone’s foreign accent, her bed when she just made it, words that sound ‘round’ like ‘youpala’ (French for baby walker)…
- Don’t do anything if it doesn’t feel good. Get over it quickly. BB never did anything unless she wanted to. When something was completely unbearable, she didn’t just ‘suffer it silently.’ She walked away or refused altogether. After the storm had passed, she forgot everything about it and got happy as normal.
- Use everything that you find pretty. Dress yourself with what you like, cast aside the trends you dislike. She ignored the trends. Completely. What she didn’t ignore was her tastes, her favorite colors, anything that caught her eye. The clothes she wore were not in fashion at that time. Same goes for her house decore: she used shells, keys and pastel colors way before others found it ‘fashionable.’ She simply didn’t watch what everyone was doing.
- Talk with no shame. Say what you are here to say. Tell the stories your way. Her speech was always nice and polite, but when she found herself being laughed at or threatened in any way, she just spoke her mind. Her way to tell stories was very personal, making everything sound funnier and cuter than it was perceived by the ones who lived it. And, if asked, she always replied with her honest opinion, and let everyone know what she was feeling at that moment.
- Laugh and smile as much as you can. It doesn’t matter if your giggles sound stupid, if your teeth are not perfect or if nobody is laughing but you. Because she was constantly amused, she laughed and smiled a lot. When she was a child, she had buck teeth and had to wear braces. When the buck teeth were corrected, she had a gap between her front teeth. She smiled widely and laughed anyway. Sure, her smile is considered today one of the most beautiful … but was it a cute smile, or her way to smile shamelessly that makes us think it is beautiful? The truth is that in most of her photos (even today at 75 years of age) she’s smiling. Her giggles are famous.
- Find something that you can do perfectly and with little or no effort. Do your thing as often as possible, and use those satisfying moments to create your personality and decide who you want to be. For Brigitte Bardot, that was ballet. While she was doing her barre exercises as a child, she thought how she wanted to be when she grew up. She spent as much time as she could dancing. The joyful piano melody helped her to get determined: she wanted a life of fun and tenderness.
- Be naïve. Don’t believe nor doubt everything they say. Concerning your projects, never second-guess yourself. She believed all the stories they told her, although she’s always had a good intuition which told her when someone was for real or not. But when she decided to start a new project, she never let there be a doubt. She always believed that everything was going to turn out right.
- Discover. People, objects, words, situations. Read and try to learn more. Again, she was always amused. And that was because she was always on the look for things to discover. She liked traveling and meeting new people, even if a person was not too nice. She enjoyed reading, not only novels but political essays too! (Right-winged and left-winged.) She just wanted to know what there was out there.
- Imagine the stuff you like (kissing your lover, winning the first prize, starring in a movie, waking up refreshed). Then behave like these things have already happened. She spent her free time imagining. Not worrying. She liked to think about what she’d do if she was somewhere else, doing something else. She loved to see herself having a good time, and by visualizing this she was on a good mood for the rest of the day (as if it really happened).
- Take care of your family. Avoid hot wars. It is okay to feel your emotions, but hold no grudge. Defend yourself, but don’t fight against anyone. If someone treats you truly right, be very affectionate. She loved her family, but it was too rigid for her sometimes. Of course, there were things in her family that she completely disliked (especially when they threatened her idea of freedom) but she avoided situations of hate or anger. While she could get along with them, she spent her time comfortably, but if she couldn’t, she just kept away to avoid screams or violence, which she detested.
- Look for tenderness in everything and everyone. In her words, “I was, I am and I will always be wanting tenderness.” Look for the softest and nicest in others, and expect nothing but being treated tenderly.
- Seek what you like in others and recreate it in yourself, physically and non-physically speaking. Brigitte Bardot was naturally brunette. During her childhood, she always found the blondes very beautiful (she dyed her hair blonde and her tress became her signature). She also admired the cooks. Her mother didn’t know how to cook, so she learned herself and because very successful at it. Why live sighing and wishing you were born different? Create yourself. Completely. Out of what you have, sculpt ‘the best you’ you can imagine.
- Believe that you can earn money whenever you want. Money and good job offers are your choice, not anyone else’s. Finding a role in a movie was never a concern for her. She trusted. When she wanted to work, the opportunity arose. She considered herself rich when she was 20 years old.
- Be stubborn about your talent and probability of success. That was key. She succeed against all odds. She believed in herself first, then everyone else did.
jan 25 2012 ∞
dec 18 2018 +
dec 18 2018 +