A Better Way to Tie Your Shoes

 

Shoes made from real crocodile skin, in a conservation exhibit at Bristol Zoo, England (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Terry Moore shares a better way to tie shoes to a TED Conference audience.  You can view the short video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zAFcV7zuUDA.

Ever since I viewed this video, I have been using the stronger shoe knot to tie my shoes.  It took some practice.  I felt very frustrated at first.  I often started to tie my shoes on autopilot using the old, weaker knot and would need to untie the knot and remember to retie it with the new stronger knot.  Why bother?  The old weaker knot had served me well for 45 years. Why change now?  I chose to accept new information about shoe tieing as true and helpful and I didn’t want to feel stupid retieing my shoes over and over or possibly tripping on an untied lace just because I was too stubborn and set in my ways to change to a better method.

Its been many months since I stumbled on Mr. Moore’s TED Talk.  I am happy to say that I have now successfully made the stronger knot my established shoe tieing habit.

The reason I share this knotted story with you is to illustrate that there are a lot of new ideas floating around and many of them can be very helpful if we will be open to evaluating  them and then commit to the hard work of learning the new skill and practicing it until it becomes a habit. It’s not easy to change, but it is usually worth the effort.

When was the last time you replaced an old habit with a new and improved one? Are you choosing to stay stuck in a rut of your own making? Is it time to learn something new, just for the fun of learning it? How could your life be different  if you chose to make learning something new each day your new habit?

Each time I tie my shoe using a stronger knot, I can remember that there are plenty of new things for me to learn and that an ever older dog like me can enjoy learning some new tricks.

How about you?  Ready to tie the knot?