Be Intentional Challenge #4 – Get Dressed to Shoes Everyday

It is day #4 for our Be Intentional Challenges!

Remember that the 30 challenges this month are designed to get you on the right foot, the right track and give you energy, efficiency and organization which will propel you into a life that is able to develop an overall financially smart, happy and frugal home.  We are going to have different themes each month this year (and we have very exciting stuff planned) and this month is your foundation!

We encourage couples and families to do these challenges together so the whole house can function well!

As the 30 days go along, we will be focusing on 5 areas for the Be Intentional Month:

• Self
• Home
• Budget
• Schedule
• Frugality

The first three days of challenges had to do with Set and Be Strict About Bedtime and Work Towards Waking Up At The Same Time Everyday and Making Your Bed Everyday.  So we are finally going to move off the topic of the bed, and move onto the other parts of our day!

With that, it is time to implement Be Intentional Challenge #4 –

Get Dressed To Shoes Everyday!

And we mean…get completely dressed all the way to your shoes, even if you aren’t leaving home.

Why do we say to get dressed to shoes everyday? To make your bed everyday? Well, let me start off by telling you a little story about myself.

A few years ago, I went to a little seminar from a professional organizer.  She had a lot of good ideas, many that I adopted, many I modified, but one tip that she really, really encouraged and pushed that I totally blew off.

That tip was Get Dressed To Shoes Everyday.  She explained how this does incredible things for your day as far as your attitude, your productiveness, your ability to move throughout the day with ease, etc. It didn’t matter if you were leaving or not.  She recommended comfortable working type shoes (like tennis shoes).

I thought, “This is silly and I love being in my comfy socks and slippers and hate wearing shoes – I throw them off the second I get home, so why on earth would I want to wear them all day? Plus, this one tip is for the really un-productive. That’s not me…I just need some help, but I am not totally unproductive.”

I look back on my attitude and it stunk! It was stupid that I blew of this highly recommended tip so quickly.  In fact, I blew it off for a long time.  I would get her emails and read her materials and this stupid tip kept popping up!

Finally, one day I said to myself, “Fine….I will put on the dumb tennis shoes when I get up!”

Um….. WOW! I was a busy bee and I moved through the day with much ease.  I felt like it was “go time” not “let’s just get through the day time.”

In fact, it was such a great feeling, that Alex after the third day noticed me getting shoes on before he went to work and commented on it (because it was odd) and I explained how it made me feel and it made me feel like I had something to do that day and then I did it.  He then commented about how he did notice that I seemed to have gotten a lot done the last couple of days, but didn’t know it was a pair of tennis shoes that were to blame 🙂

In the end, I wished I had not blew off this one tip from the professional organizer and had just done it to begin with. It was pretty haughty of me to think that I knew what I was doing and wasn’t even going to consider it.

So we highly encourage you to get dressed to shoes everyday:

• Especially for the WAHM or SAHM (work-at-home or stay-at-home moms) – that’s me…I am both!
• Dress in comfortable shoes – I was able to find some of the Sketchers Shape Ups and after clearances and coupons at Payless, I only paid $8 for them.  They are comfortable and I like to think that I am toning my legs while wearing them.
• Don’t feel like you can’t change your shoes if you go out.  I rarely wear my house shoes out, but I also don’t want to wear my shin high boots, or ballet flats with crystal accents around the house…those are my going out shoes and they aren’t all that comfy 🙂 So I might change my shoes a couple times per day, but it is no biggie!
• If I don’t get a shower in first thing, I still put on shoes, even if I am taking a shower in an hour or two (and then put them on again).
• After the kids are in bed and I start unwinding for the night, I do kick off my shoes and relax the last couple of hours of the day!

So…now is the moment of truth, will you do challenge #4 with us and get dressed to shoes everyday! Leave us a comment to let us know!

Finally, one fun and new thing we will be doing this year is having Facebook groups for each month’s challenges.  This first month we have our Be Intentional with The Thrifty Couple Facebook Group HERE. We highly encourage you to ask to join so that we can communicate and encourage everyone.  It is intended to be a small and intimate group as we develop relationships with our readers, talk back and forth and ask questions! We are excited about this new avenue and hope you will find it encouraging too!

Head to the Be Intentional with The Thrifty Couple Facebook Page HERE and ask to join us there! You can also invite friends and spouses too!

Photo Credit: FitSugar.com