High Heels vs Trainers

Every time someone takes a photo of me, my instinct is, “Ooh, don’t get my gym shoes in!” And I thought about cropping them out of these photos. (Simple solution: don’t wear gym shoes everywhere you go.) But here’s the thing: I always thought my ideal self would wear high heels everywhere she went. But actually, when I think about my ideal self, she’s travelling, running, exercising, doing 100 push ups on the regular… my ideal self would be wearing trainers most of the time. That’s just the truth, no matter how much I used to picture my ideal self as Carrie Bradshaw (who spent $40,000 on shoes in 10 years), let’s face it, my ideal self is more like Michelle Obama. Michelle is real goals. I bet you, when Michelle is not in meetings, she’s in trainers. Crushing it. Not to meetings (currently: guilty), but mostly she would. I mean, what’s a High Performer if she can’t break into a full workout at a moments notice? But truly, I think it’s really important to recognise that our ideal selves morph over time, wich is totally okay. And that’s what’s happened to me – the old version of my ideal self has morphed. She’s upgraded. I’ve changed my aim. I still love heels, and I won’t stop wearing them. But I’m giving up my embarrassment about wearing gym shoes everywhere now.

This isn’t really about shoes. It’s about accepting that your ideal self can change over time. (When I was 14, my ideal self had flaming red hair and could ride a skateboard and speak Elvish. Yikes. It’s good that not only we change, but our ideal selves change too.

Have you checked in with the vision of your ideal self lately? Are you trying to embody an outdated version of her/him?