In my previous blog post, I looked at the idea of Beautyspan: the period during which we feel comfortable in our body and with our appearance.

But feeling good about yourself means different things to different people.

The recent report Feelgood Revolution by the Gottlieb Duttweiler Institute (GDI) offers an interesting way of looking at these differences. Based on a representative survey of more than 3,000 people in Germany, Austria and German-speaking Switzerland, the researchers identified four different groups according to their attitudes towards health, appearance and wellbeing.

The GDI calls them Strugglers, Achievers, Balancers, and Agnostics.

What I find particularly valuable about this is that it raises a question that I ask myself regularly in my practice:

What does this particular person actually want – and why?

The GDI did not divide people simply according to age, gender or lifestyle. Instead, the four groups are based on their attitudes and motivations: how important health and appearance are to them, how much control they feel they have, how much they accept themselves and how strongly they compare themselves with others.

The result is four very different ways of relating to your own body.

The Strugglers are particularly concerned with their appearance and health, but feel that they have limited control over these areas. Their main concern is often not how they feel themselves, but how they are perceived by others. They seek external validation and compare themselves with other people, often to their own disadvantage.

They make up 29% of the population surveyed, making them the largest of the four groups.

The GDI describes them as investing considerable energy in optimisation while experiencing the least comfort with their own appearance.

This is where the distinction between wanting a treatment and what someone hopes the treatment will achieve becomes important.

Two people may come to my practice asking for exactly the same treatment. But their reasons may be completely different.

One person may simply want to soften a feature that has started to bother them. Another may hope that changing their appearance will finally make them feel good enough.

These are very different situations.

Understanding that difference is an essential part of aesthetic medicine.

The Achievers take a very active approach to their health and appearance. They believe that discipline, routines and investment can help them improve both. They tend to set themselves goals and feel good when they achieve them. Unlike the Strugglers, they can use comparison with others as motivation rather than as a source of frustration.

They account for 26% of the population surveyed.

I don’t think there is anything wrong with wanting to improve yourself.

Looking after your health, exercising, taking care of your skin or considering an aesthetic treatment can all be positive choices.

The important distinction, in my view, is between taking care of yourself and feeling that you constantly have to improve yourself.

If the process itself makes you feel good, that is very different from believing that you will only be happy once you have reached some perfect version of yourself.

The Balancers have a strong sense of self-acceptance and are less likely to compare themselves with others. They care about their health and appearance, but primarily because it makes them feel good – not because they want to meet someone else’s expectations.

They represent 28% of the population surveyed.

The GDI describes their approach as intrinsically motivated: they look after themselves because it feels right for them. They also tend to accept the natural changes that come with age and report high levels of satisfaction with their appearance.

This is the group that best illustrates something I consider important in my own work:

Caring about your appearance and accepting yourself are not opposites.

You can enjoy skincare. You can exercise. You can have an aesthetic treatment. And you can still be perfectly comfortable with who you are.

For me, that is a healthy relationship with aesthetic medicine: it is something you can choose to do without feeling that you have to do it.

For the Agnostics, appearance and health play a much smaller role. The GDI describes them as taking a largely functional approach to their bodies: if everything works and they are free from pain, they are satisfied. They have little interest in beauty routines, fitness trends or appearance ideals.

They make up 18% of the population surveyed, the smallest of the four groups.

Interestingly, the report also finds that the Agnostics are not necessarily more satisfied with their lives. Their limited engagement with their health and appearance is associated with lower overall life satisfaction.

This group is a reminder that not being particularly interested in your appearance is also perfectly valid.

Not everyone wants skincare, fitness routines or aesthetic treatments.

Aesthetic medicine should never be about convincing people that they need to change something about themselves.

The four groups are obviously not four boxes into which every person fits perfectly. The GDI itself presents them as a typology based on attitudes and motivations.
But they offer a useful way of thinking about something that matters greatly in my practice.

Aesthetic consultations often start with a simple concern:

«I don’t like this.»

But behind those four words can be very different motivations.

Someone may want to look less tired. Another person may finally want to make a change that has been on their mind for years.

And sometimes the best decision is not to have a treatment at all.

The most important question is therefore not whether someone chooses Botox, skincare, surgery – or nothing.

It is whether the decision is genuinely their own.

What bothers them? Why does it bother them? What do they hope will change? And can a treatment realistically achieve that?

These questions are at the heart of a meaningful consultation.

The GDI report shows that people have very different relationships with their health, wellbeing and appearance.

Some people enjoy actively optimising themselves. Others want to take care of themselves without making appearance the centre of their lives. Some are highly sensitive to how others perceive them. And some simply want their body to function well.

None of these approaches is right or wrong.

For me, this is the central message of my three-part series about the GDI report: there is no single way to look at yourself, feel good or age well.

First, we saw a changing attitude towards aesthetic medicine – including among Swiss men.

Then, we looked at the broader idea of Beautyspan and the growing connection between health, wellbeing and appearance.

And finally, we turned to the individual.

Because there is only the question of what feels right for you.

And that is where every good aesthetic consultation should begin.

Dr. med. Borut Banič

Board-certified Specialist in Plastic, Reconstructive, and Aesthetic Surgery (FMH)

Fellow of The European Board of Plastic, Reconstructive and Aesthetic Surgery (FEBOPRAS)