Walk a mile in their shoes. Or not.

You know what messed me up as a kid? The statement: Walk a mile in their shoes.

I adopted that phrase and as a result, never walked in my own shoes till recently. What a view! What a difference! What a revelation!

So check this out. The math surprised me.

If I walk one mile in their shoes, not only am I walking ONE mile in a direction I don't want to go, but I also have to back track ANOTHER mile to get back to the place I was before I started walking.

And not only do I lose time going there and back, but I ALSO lose the time I would have spent walking 2 miles in my OWN direction.

That's a total loss of 4 F***ING miles for every ONE mile I walk in someone else's shoes!!!

This doesn't mean never do it, just don't do it all the time. Just because they say to walk a mile in someone else's shoes, does NOT mean to walk ALL miles in everyone else's shoes. Pick and choose carefully when you want to step into someone else's shoes because you want to make sure you're following your own heart, traveling your own road of life, not someone else's.

Be yourself. Don't let others convince you that you're the problem; be the wall they break themselves against because you won't change.
— Amber J (@Phenomenousity) October 21, 2014