Never Say Never
February 29, 2024
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Last fall, I decided to do something daring. I bought a pair of white gym shoes.
Now I love the color white. There’s nothing like a crisp white shirt to make you feel like you are rocking adulthood more. But as I’ve learned, I strongly dislike the upkeep of bleaching, stain-removing, and doing anything above and beyond the laundry basics. Because of this, those who know me well, know that I wear black. Every day. I’ve chosen ease of upkeep, over style. Until last November.
I tried on this pair of white retro sneakers and felt this little flutter of excitement. It activated a hop to my step. Although it went against my strict rule for lazy clothing upkeep, I felt dapper in them. Also, they were on sale. Achilles heel activated, I went to the cashier and rung those puppies up.
The first 24 hours with white sneakers is the best. The first 24 days makes you remember why you had the damn rule in the first place. After many walks with our pup, workouts at the gym, and moving homes, my beautiful shoes looked like a hot, stained mess. My first thought — you should have known better. But was that the right attitude?
There’s that saying “Never say never,” which essentially advises you to stay open to the possibilities. But how do lived experiences factor into this?
Over the years, I’ve learned lessons in business that were hard truths and were straight up painful to live through. I’m sure you have too. You swear you’ll never “make that mistake again,” or “do things differently next time.” But how do you remain open, while bringing in the lessons you’ve learned from the past?
My advice— continuously learn new techniques and tools. The first time we go through anything, usually we fumble, extra awkwardly, because we’ve never done it before. It sucks. It hurts. The next time you’re in that position (because you will be in that position again), you still may fumble, but maybe not as spectacularly because you have new knowledge and skills, to help you navigate it better. We must reframe our brains to understand, that is progress and progress is success.
In the case of the white shoes, I decided to learn a new skill — sneaker cleaning. I learned about the brush densities, scrubbing strategies, and shoe lacing styles. Instead of dreading the “extra work” I decided to enjoy the journey and not just the result. The best part was how proud I was of myself, which wouldn’t have happened if I obsessed only over the result of perfectly white shoes.
Now that is progress.
— Ariana
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