If the shoe fits...wear it!

This morning, as I got ready for work, I grabbed a pair of shoes off my shelf and put them on. As I stood up, I looked down and thought to myself, “Why don’t I wear these shoes more often?” You might be asking yourself a question now, too; “Why am I reading about shoes on a Career Center blog post?” Stick with me, reader! 

I remembered that these were shoes that I had purchased right before an interview. An interview for a position that I really wanted – a position that I did not get. Today was one of the few times that I’d worn the shoes since that day, and each time I wore them, I would think about how these were those shoes. They represented a negative, a failure, something I’d rather forget. But, I was running late, so I didn’t take them off.

Walking into the office from my car, I thought to myself, “these are actually pretty comfortable.” Once I got into the office, a coworker pointed them out, complimented them, and asked where I’d gotten them. “Why don’t you wear these more often?” They asked me.

Well, why don’t I?! Was I mad at the shoes for the fact that I didn’t get that job? Of course not! Had I gotten that position, I would have missed out on a lot of great things both personally and professionally that would not have happened otherwise. Actually, as I thought more, there were a lot more positive things that came out of that situation than negative. Maybe I should have been thinking of these shoes as a manifestation of those positive things this whole time!  

Still with me through this long-winded analogy? Congrats! I encourage you to think about your “shoes;” what are the positive things that have come out of a not-so-great situation that have benefited you? Maybe you didn’t get your dream internship or job, but it freed you up to take advantage of a different opportunity that ended up being great. Perhaps you didn’t get a good grade on a paper and needed to rewrite it, which led to you learning something completely new once you revisited the same information. We never know what’s going to happen, or what it means for us; the only thing we can do is regroup, put our best foot forward (get it?), and start the next chapter of our story.

Step on,
Amy