You may want to sit down for this.
Life keeps moving, you know that. You’re always told in some way or another to “never look down” or “keep one foot in front of the other.” Sometimes, you’ll trip and fall, but you also knew that. You were a kid when you first learned how to tie your shoes, but let me teach you how to do it again.
Alright, let’s take a step back.
You’re ready for your first basketball game--the date with the girl you’ve crushed on for years. You’re ready for the business meeting with your new boss. You have to be ready, are you ready?
If there’s any advice I can give you, it’s that you have to believe in yourself. Some people will tell you that you’re doing it wrong, believe them, but only for a second. Let them doubt. But stand up proudly and keep walking. Half-way you may begin to realize your steps are starting to slow you down. Everyone is moving ahead of you and you manage to be left behind. You may fall--fall hard, but that’s okay.
You know all about falling. Five feet from making the basket and the only glance of the 3-point shot is from the reflection from off of the floor. The time you were playing tag on the playground with the girl you swore you thought you would marry, but after she got her first boyfriend that wasn’t you, you knew with perfect clarity what it was like to bruise your knees after falling for someone so hard. You also remember spilling your coffee on your freshly pressed shirt and that you lost the new position to five minutes past late.
Now, it’s time for me to teach you how to tie your shoes.
Bunny-ear, loop-de-loop, one in and out the other, you name it. After years of doing the same thing, you just remember how to. It becomes routine. As a kid, tying your shoe was a marvel, a magic trick you had to learn to show all of your friends. As an adult, it’s a deep sigh and getting down on one knee. The trick in the knot is keeping it tight. Remember all the times you fell down? Now, remember how you got back up. You didn’t let a piece of string keep you down. The key is confidence. You may stumble at first but that’s only because you’re learning. It takes practice and patience, nothing more. No fancy tricks, not even fancy shoes. Just time.
The five seconds before the buzzer rang you got back up and made the layup. You may have let your dream girl go, but you found her twelve years later and three states away and now she’s falling asleep in your arms. After spilling the coffee on your shirt and cursing every bad word in the book, you sat down on the bench where you exchanged numbers with the CEO of your dream job. After a few years of falling down, getting back up becomes secondhand nature. Collecting bruises wasn’t something to be ashamed of, but became a personal collection of experiences. So, don’t let them tell you that you’re doing it wrong. You’re already one step ahead by believing in yourself because life keeps moving, but you already knew that.
Like your mother taught you, “Bunny-ear, loop-de-loop, one in and out the other”
Stand up. You just learned how to tie your shoes. Now, you’re ready to go.