Brand-New White Tennis Shoes + Winner

First, Congrats to Rose who wins a copy of my DVD for her comment about her enabler.

As I look back now I realize that the magic wasn’t in the shoes. It was in my belief in the shoes that allowed me to run faster.

I can still remember today what it felt like to be a kid with a pair of brand-new white tennis shoes. It seemed like every year, sometime around the beginning of school, my mom would take me out and buy me a new pair of tennis shoes. The salesman would always ask me if I wanted to wear them out of the store or carry them out in a box. This seemed like a foolish question to me. I wondered, “Who wouldn’t want to wear a brand-new pair of tennis shoes?”

As soon as we are out of the store and in the parking lot on the way to the car, the magic began. With my first chance to run in those new white shoes I would sprint to the car, watching my feet the entire way, and marvel at how much faster I could run in those new shoes.

The next couple days were always filled with more of the same. No matter where I was at, whether at the park, in my backyard, on the street to my friends house or in the playground at school, I would run; and no matter where I was running I always kept my eyes fixed on my shoes, blown away at how fast my feet were moving.

I knew I was running faster. I could tell. It always took less time to get from place to place and I was more dominant in foot races with my friends. I remember sometimes thinking my speed had increased so much that the wind was actually blowing through hair (which because it was the 70’s was beautifully feathered due of the comb I always kept in the back pocket of my Hash jeans).

Then invariably, as the days and weeks would pass the bright white of my shoes would begin to dull. They would scuff and stain. They would become tarnished and dirty. As the new shoes became the same color as my old shoes, my new speed would go and my old speed would return.

What changed?

I’m pretty sure that those new shoes by themselves didn’t do anything to increase my speed. But, know I ran faster. Maybe not substantially faster, but faster. When I would watch my feet moving back and forth, those white tennis shoes made it look like they were moving faster. Because I believed my feet were moving at a faster rate, my speed increased as well. Not because of the strength of the shoes themselves, but because of the power of my belief in those shoes.

As soon as the white was gone so too was my belief in my newfound speed. With no more belief in my new shoes there was no more new speed to be had.

As I look back now I realize that the magic wasn’t in the shoes. It was in my belief in the shoes. Those brand-new white tennis shoes allowed me to believe that I could run faster, and because I believed, it was so.

We need to fill our lives with brand-new white tennis shoes. We need to surround ourselves with things that help us believe we can be better, stronger, faster. That we can do more and be more. That the good were doing today can become better or best tomorrow.

For some people a motivating quote can be their new tennis shoes. For others, properly set goals put in a prominent place can be the bright white that allows them to believe. There are those who find it easier to believe in themselves when they have a list of their talents that they can review regularly. And, there are those whose family photo gives them the belief that they can be more.

What helps you believe in your potential doesn’t really matter. What does matter is that, like my new tennis shoes, you look at them often reminding yourself of how fast and far you can go. For everyone knows you run faster with brand-new white tennis shoes.

Jh-

Pull Your Wagon

It’s hard for me to think of a time in my life that I wasn’t spending a portion of my energy selling. From lemonade to magazine subscriptions to financial services to ideas for better living, my life has revolved around convincing people to purchase a product I felt could benefit their lives.

One of my earliest memories of this passion for the exchange of money for products and services came when I was five years old.  I had figured out that in order to acquire the candy that was so beautifully displayed at the 7-Eleven down the street I would have to have money. Unfortunately, I didn’t have any money and my mother (who for some reason didn’t share my excitement about the candy) had informed me that she was not going to provide me any additional monies.

Knowing that the “bank” at the home front was closed, I began to think of other options that would help me acquire the candy. I began to wander around my yard trying to find some spare change, and when that didn’t work I began looking for something that I might sell for the money I needed. Eventually, I found a product that I felt sure would get me to my proverbial “candyland.” I loaded up my little red wagon with my product and started on my way to make my first sale.

As I started down the sidewalk my mother saw me and asked where I was going and what I was doing. I told her that I was on my way to sell my wares. She looked in my red wagon and saw it filled with rocks. These weren’t polished rocks, or painted rocks, they were just regular old rocks. She told me that people weren’t going to want to buy rocks that I had found in our yard and invited me to come back to the house where she would help me differentiate them somehow.

I looked at my rocks and felt sure that I had a product of others would pay for. After a few more attempts to change my mind my mom eventually let me go on my way to learn my lesson from the school of hard knocks.

About a half-hour later she saw me slowly returning to the house with my red wagon in tow. As she began to console me in my defeat she noticed that the red wagon I was pulling was empty and my pockets were filled with change. I had sold every one of my rocks and it wasn’t long until that candy I wanted so bad was mine.

Like that day, sometimes in our lives we feel confident in our ability to do great things. In fact, we are positive that we will succeed until someone comes along and attempts to change our mind. Often the people working to get us to see things a different way are doing so because they love us. My mother’s only motivation was to keep me from failure.

However, just because their motives are good doesn’t make their opinions right. There will be times in our lives when we are sure that we can move forward; sure we can do some thing, and in those times our success will largely depend on our willingness to press on regardless of what others say.

In my life, as I think back, I recall many goals that I accomplished even though others told me that I would fail. I think back to the people who told me I would never breathe on my own. I think back to the people who told me I never would graduate high school. I think back to the people who told me I would never get married. I think back to the people who told me I would not become a father, and I think back to the people who told me I would never find gainful employment.

In many ways the only reason I ended up right and they ended up wrong was because I moved forward regardless of what they said. It’s important to get input. It’s important to get advice. I rarely make a decision in my life without consulting wise people with my best interest at heart.

But, acquiring advice doesn’t mean you have to act on that advice. When you know you can succeed and others are sure you will fail, many times the difference between success and failure is whether or not you press on.

This kind of persistence will be the difference between a full wagon and empty pockets and an empty wagon and full pockets. Move forward. Press on. For the most part the real differentiator between selling your rocks or not is a willingness to pull your wagon down the street.

Jh-