Observations

 Why Re-examine Your Choices?

In the Spring of 1983, Vanity Fair Magazine came back into circulation. An early addition struck me like lighting from the newsstand. The cover was designed and photographed by the artist David Hockney. It was a photo of his feet strutting out from a boat dock over a lake in Gérardmer, France.

The SOCKS! I said it out loud. One red, the other yellow. This was great. Immediately I was struck by the idea, why did socks have to match? Why did they have to be the same color? Why can’t I think about things in new ways all the time, to back up, to start from scratch, and re-examine old choices in new ways?

It isn’t that all previous choices are inherently wrong, but things do change, and we are not conditioned to regularly re-examine decisions we may have made decades ago. To the contrary, many see examining the past as being indecisive, weak, even disloyal.

However, the two different colored socks idea has become a daily reminder that I can change my mind based on new information or changing conditions. I don’t have to let inertia or worse habits inhibit my ability to consider making deliberate and meaningful choices for myself or our clients.

Since 1983, I’ve chosen to wear two different colored socks to remind me every day that I’ve given myself permission to think in new ways. Furthermore, I should acknowledge and accept change as a constant, continuously examining the past in the context of the present.

While you may not want to adopt the two-colored socks regime, you may want to let yourself off the hook or habit every now and then.