Friends, I have a confession to make: when I was a kid, I had a funny habit.
Whenever I would get a new pair of shoes, I wore them to bed.
I was so excited by the look, the smell and the feeling of getting a new dress shoes, sneakers or cleats, I just did not want to take them off. I thought by wearing them to bed, it would help me break them in. That would let me run faster, look better, take me somewhere new or just be better.
That was my logic…if you read my whole thing about bananas last week, you probably aren’t surprised.
I guess a part of it is also a tell about how I view the world: I’ve always focused on the possibility of new things.
Change doesn’t bother me. Whether it is a new job, a new house, a new technology, a new place to visit, a new food or experience, I don’t usually think about all of the downsides, risks or bad things that could happen. To a fault, I find that I get completely immersed in the endless possibilities of what it could become.
I know not everyone has the same reaction though.
We are all creatures of habit, and we all develop a sense of security and certainty with routine and keeping things and our universe the same. Like an old pair of shoes, we like our lives comfy.
As a result, for some, that means change can be really scary. Sometimes, if we are lucky, we can choose the change — sometimes it is just handed to us with a punch to the gut.
It presents possibilities that are unknown — and out of our control. It can paralyze us or make us judge what can happen. We begin the process of the “what ifs.”
What if this wasn’t what I thought it would be?
What if things don’t work out for me?
What if I’m not good enough?
What if that person doesn’t like me?
What if I can’t run faster, look better or go somewhere better?
What if life is not better because of this change?
“What ifs” make us doubt that we can make something of the possibilities that new opportunities present us.
I recently watched my youngest, forever banana consuming teenage son at a sports tryout. He is very much a creature of habit and has a natural aversion to changes in his routine. When you think about it, the nature of tryouts, and the new people, new coaches, new experiences and all of the possibilities and expectations that go along with those can be terrifying for even someone who embraces change.
The tryout was intense — fast paced, lots of new drills, instruction urgently being barked by coaches from all directions and new kids with whom he was competing. His skill and his will were there — he definitely belonged on the field. But, in the beginning, you could see that the change was making him uncomfortable and doubt himself — and his performance showed that.
But then something clicked. You could see him fighting through his discomfort. He stopped “what iffing” and started to embrace the process. The drills, while new, showcased skills he had developed elsewhere. The coaches, while new, were instructing and pushing him to execute like others he had previously had. He saw that he was good enough to be there — in fact, he was better than a lot of the other players that jumped right in from the start. He saw the possibilities of where this could take him.
In the end, he ended up doing great (much better than he expected) and got what he wanted out of the experience.
Friends, I’m here to remind you: whether it is a new job, a new place to live, a new person to meet or a new experience, don’t be afraid to wear your shoes to bed.
You can run faster. You can look better. You can go somewhere new. You can just be better if you allow yourself to see the possibilities of change.
Old shoes can be comfy. But they were new once before too.
XOXO
Dave
And now a few things to make you smarter…
Visualization of the world’s oldest and youngest countries by median age, based on 2024 estimates from the CIA World Factbook.
Productivity is the art of doing what’s most worth your time. That means in order to truly have a productive day, you need to get your most important work done. Good one highlighting the things you can do to make that happen.
The microcar is a singular little thing—its job is to frugally take one person (or maybe two people) where they need to go while taking up as little space as possible. A few have broken their way into the public consciousness but where did these tiny wonders come from? And do they have a future? Without the microcar's predecessors, we may not have the modern motorcar as we know it.
Teenagers are idiots…My job as their dad is to be their prefrontal cortex until it shows up. I told my son on a Thursday it was Thursday, and he disagreed.
This will be the best thing you read all week — especially if you have a teenager that is close to you. Professor Dave Galloway does a great job outlining the case against free reign of social media. Similar to automobiles, alcohol, and AK-47s, it has a mixed impact on our lives. It presents dangers. And one of the things a healthy society does is limit the availability of dangerous products to children, who lack the capacity to use them safely. READ IT.