My Year of Hand Me Downs
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The Experiment Begins

Are Flip Flops Shoes?

4/20/2017

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​I know that seems like a pointless question, but I found myself in the Target shoe department pondering if flips flops are in fact shoes.  And if they aren’t shoes, then can I buy them?
 
Ugh…see the dilemma?
 
Ok, before you get upset I’ll skip to the end of this story and let you know that I did NOT buy the flip flops.  But I really wanted to!  Here’s what happened:
 
I practically live in flip flops when the weather is nice and I usually have 2 to 4 pairs in my closet.  I always have one “nice” pair too.  They are leather and I spend too much money on them, but they are nicer than your typical plastic ones and they look good when you’re going out.
 
The problem is my “nice” pair are ruined.  I spent about $35 on them a couple of years ago and they have held up nicely, and I thought I’d get at least another year out of them.  But my Chihuahua, Pearl, had other plans for them.
 
So, the weather is nicer now and my mind goes into “flip flop mode”.  I put on the ONE pair I still own and head to Target with my daughter (because she actually needs shoes).  We pick out a nice pair of shoes for her and I spot some REALLY cute black leather flip flops ON SALE!
 
Omg, I love a sale!
 
I try them on and justify them in my head – “These don’t count because flip flops aren’t really shoes and the dog chewed mine up”.  And then the voice of reason pipes in (my daughter), “You’re wearing a pair of flip flops right now.  What’s wrong with them?  And don’t you own two pair of sandals too?”
 
Sigh…”Yes, I do own sandals.  Yes, I am wearing a pair of flips flops.  Yes, I’ll put these back.”
 
When did my kid become logical?  I really didn’t want to put the flip flops back, but I couldn’t argue the points that she made.  I did have multiple pairs of sandals at home and buying another pair of flip flops is completely against what I’m trying to do this year.
 
When I got home I went to my closet and looked at my shoes.  I own too many.  I hated admitting that.
 
I even went online to see what’s the average an American woman owns.  It’s 27.  Holy crap – 27 pairs seems like SO many!  There’s no way I own that many!  I mean, I just purged a TON of shoes!
 
Wrong.
 
I own 27…exactly 27.  Just when a girl thinks she’s conquering this “shopping” thing and she’s making all kinds of progress the universe smacks her in the face and says, “See, you’re just like everyone else.”
 
Sigh.
 
There are two ways I could look at this: 1) I could start thinking I’m not taking any steps forward, that this is just too hard and what’s the point anyways.  OR 2) I could tell myself, “Put your big girl pants on, roll up your sleeves, and get to work.”
 
And that’s what I’m going to do…work.  I’m going to work at this and remind myself that “work” isn’t always fun, it’s…work.  If it were fun, then we would go to “fun” every day and not “work”. 
 
This weekend HALF of those shoes will be gone, and I’m saying it here so I’m held accountable.  I don’t need 27 pairs of shoes and you probably don’t either.
 
So, how many pair of shoes do you own?  How many do you NEED?  
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Uniquely You

4/6/2017

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I have an identical twin, but there is no one like me.  There’s no one like you either.  You and I are unique and we love to be described that way.
 
If you look up the word unique you learn that it means “without equal or rival, unlike anything else”.  Doesn’t it make you smile hearing how truly unique you are?  Right now, we’re all thinking, “Yeah, there’s no one like me!  I’m different, I’m awesome, I’m ME!”
 
And then we do something that ruins our “uniqueness high”, something that truly is the enemy of unique.
 
We compare.
 
We compare ourselves to our friends, to our enemy’s, to our co-workers, to strangers standing in line in front of us at Target.   I do it all the time and as much as I’d like to tell myself that I’m getting better at realizing my own “worth”, I caught myself comparing my outfit to another woman’s outfit just this weekend.
 
Fail.
 
I was standing in line behind her and she had on the perfect sweater with the perfect pair of skinny jeans.  She was wearing these amazing grey ankle boots and this very cute white and light pink blanket scarf.  Seriously, she could have been the woman they put on Pinterest boards to show the rest of us how we SHOULD be dressing.
 
And it’s not like I was dressed in dirty pajama’s or something.  I had on a pretty nice outfit.  Good pair of jeans, nice ankle boots, and my black plaid poncho cape sweater thing (I never know what to call it really).  Before I noticed her in line I was feeling really good about the outfit, and then I see her and I instantly start belittling myself in my head.
 
Why do we do that?
 
I have been reading Without Rival by Lisa Bevere and she said something that really impacted me.  “Comparison is nothing but a distraction.” “ We’ve believed the lies that another woman’s beauty takes away from our own.”
 
Standing there in that line at the store I compared my outfit to that other woman’s and I instantly felt…less.  I felt like I should go buy a new outfit so I could…compete. 
 
UGH!!!  I’ve gotten into a comfortable “not buying new clothes” groove and then BAM - I’m triggered and want to buy something…new, better, prettier.  Advertising and the fashion industry have done their job SO well. 
 
Thankfully I recognized what I was doing pretty quickly and decided that I needed to change my thinking.  The problem didn’t lie with that well dressed woman in line, the problem was squarely mine. 
 
So what do we do when we catch ourselves comparing?
 
Well one way is to use the Rule of One.  For a few days only compare yourself to one other person – yourself.  For a few days stop thinking “I wish my outfit looked as good as hers” and start thinking “How does this look compared to what I wore yesterday?” or “I look great in this!  I never thought of putting this blazer with this t-shirt, but it works and looks awesome!”
 
If I had left that store and tried to put together the same outfit that woman had on, what would be unique about that?  Would it had been MY style?  No, it would have been hers.  And aren’t we all trying to find our OWN style this year?
 
So embrace the uniqueness of YOU!  If you’re going to compare yourself to someone else, compare yourself to who you were yesterday and who you want to be tomorrow.  And also remember what Dr. Seuss tried to teach us when we were young.

 
Today you are you
That is truer than true.
There is no one alive
That is youer than you.
 

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    My name is Misty Day (yeah, that really is my name) and I'm a normal every day person.  I'm a twin, I work as an analyst, I take my daughter to Girl Scouts and swim team, I play bass guitar in a band, I love food and wine, I like new clothes, and I'm trying to be a better person.

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